The Lion, The Witch, and The Doctor (1/3)
A Doctor Who fic that I’ve been working on. I rather like this one. Of course it’s a little Doctor/Martha :)
Title: The Lion, The Witch, and The Doctor
Chapter: 1
Author: foreverwriting9
Pairing: Doctor/Martha
Spoilers: References The Shakespeare Code.
Rating: PG-PG13
Summary: The Doctor and Martha travel to a world called Arnian where the snow is plentiful and where strangeness abounds.
Word Count: 1,213
-
The TARDIS lurched to a halt. Martha turned with a smile to the Doctor. “Where are we?”
He nodded to the door. “Go have a look.”
With some slight trepidation-after all, she never knew where they might end up-Martha opened the door. The sight was breathtaking.
They had landed atop a small snow-covered cliff overlooking a valley. Evergreens surrounded the TARDIS-to Martha, it seemed to be a miracle that they hadn’t ended up on top of one-and they seemed to be dusted with just the right amount of snow.
With a soft ‘oh’ Martha turned her face to the sky. The snow was falling lazily down to earth, spiraling and twirling whenever a gust of wind caught the flakes.
The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS in just enough time to see Martha stick out her tongue and try to catch some snowflakes. He let out a chuckle, humans and their fascination with snow. Martha heard him and turned around. “Where are we?”
“The planet of Arnian; not as far away from Earth as you’d think.”
Martha looked down at the snow beneath her feet. “Does it snow here all the time?”
He gave her a smile that told her she had just hit upon an excellent observation. “What makes you say that?”
“The snow is almost half-way up some of the trees.”
“Maybe they had a recent snowstorm.”
“But then we wouldn’t be able to walk on it. It’s almost like it has frozen overtime and made it possible to walk on top of it without falling through.”
The Doctor’s face broke out into a wide grin. “Oh I do like you Martha Jones.”
She couldn’t help but feel like she had passed some sort of test.
“That’s exactly what happened,” continued the Doctor. “It’s always winter here.”
“Always winter, never Christmas?”
“Ah hah!” Cried the Doctor, tapping his nose. “Clever Martha, but I think they celebrate Christmas as often as Earth does.”
The rustling of leaves interrupted their conversation; from out behind some trees cam a young man with the legs of a goat. Martha’s jaw dropped.
“Oh you are kidding me.”
The man began to walk toward them. Martha moved closer to the Doctor. “Is he dangerous?”
“A man with the legs of a goat? No I don’t think so.”
“Are all Arnians fauns?”
“No, they’re fairly human.” He shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat. “I wonder what’s happened.”
The faun now stood in front of them.
“Hello,” he said, giving them a hesitant smile, “my name is Sutnum, Mr. Sutnum.”
“How d’you do?” Asked the Doctor, sticking out his hand.
Mr. Sutnum cocked his head and stared at the Doctor’s hand.
“Ah.” Murmured the Doctor, and stuck his hand back inside his pocket. He then continued to look at Mr. Sutnum as though searching him for answers. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
There, Martha thought, he’s found his answer.
“You’re not really a faun, are you Mr. Sutnum?”
“A faun? Good heavens no. I’m a man.” He cast a look down at his legs. “Well, used to be a man.” He eyed Martha. “A darn good one too.”
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t like it when men hit on Martha, let alone a faun. Martha, noticing the look in Mr. Sutnum’s eyes took a step closer to the Doctor, her hand brushing against his. An accident? He hoped not. Disappointment flashed in Mr. Sutnum’s eyes, replacing the lust that had so disgusted Martha.
“Can you tell us what happened?”
Mr. Sutnum nodded rather reluctantly. “It’ll be safer to talk somewhere else; the trees have ears.”
He turned and began walking down the cliff. When he was out of earshot the Doctor muttered, “First Shakespeare, now a faun.”
Martha smiled, he sounded almost jealous.
“I don’t like him; do we really have to follow him?”
He couldn’t help but feel relieved. “Yes, I’m afraid so.” He said, hooking her arm through his.
-
“Comfortable?”
“Yes, thank you,” said Martha as Mr. Sutnum handed her a cup of tea.
He had brought them to his house, and upon entering he had rushed into the kitchen to make some of his reputedly famous tea. Martha took one sip and almost choked. The Doctor, while Mr. Sutnum’s back was turned, motioned to the plant sitting next to her. She quickly spit out the tea and poured the rest onto the plant.
‘Thank you’ she mouthed to him. He gave her a small smirk.
“Mr. Sutnum, would you be kind enough to tell us what’s happening here?”
Mr. Sutnum sighed. “It all started a couple months ago. Our leader, King Nasla, disappeared. His sorceress, Jadis, claimed he left her in charge. She wouldn’t tell anyone where he’d gone, but she was able to produce a letter with his seal and signature, that proclaimed her as ruler until he returned. I was sent to investigate.”
“Why you?”
“My father was a rather famous detective here in Arnian. I followed in his footsteps, like he wanted, but I’m not at all interested in that sort of stuff, so I have no motivation. Anyway, I must have been close to something, because one night I was called to Jadis’ room.”
“You didn’t find that at all suspicious?”
Mr. Sutnum shrugged. “I was a man still, neither one of us is married-”
The Doctor held up his hand. “Alright, just continue with the story.”
“Well, I walked into her room, and she was nowhere to be seen. I noticed that another door in her room was open, so I walked over to it. I had hardly even stepped into this new room when someone knocked me out. Next thing I knew, I was lying on a bed in a room I had never seen before, and my legs hurt-really bad Doctor, like a searing pain.”
“Like they had been burned?”
“Almost, yes. I blacked out after that, but when I woke up again, I had these.” He gestured down to his legs.
The Doctor drummed his fingers against his knee. “Anything else?”
“She warned me never to come back to the castle ever again, and to never share this story with anyone, otherwise she would see to it that I became a goat-a full goat.”
“Thank you, Mr. Sutnum, I think we’ll be going now.” The Doctor stood up.
Mr. Sutnum eyed Martha. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”
“Quite sure,” answered Martha, quickly getting up and joining the Doctor.
-
“So who is this Jadis woman?”
“A Carrionite, of sorts.”
Martha stopped walking and looked at the Doctor. “I thought we got rid of them.”
He turned and shrugged. “She’s got more powerful words than all the rest; the deplorable word.”
“The what?”
“Deplorable word. She can destroy whole civilizations, kill anything, anybody. All with a single word.”
“That’s terrible.”
“She’s not afraid to use it either.”
“How did she change Mr. Sutnum’s legs though? She can’t have done all that with just words.”
“That’s the mystery Martha. And that is why we’re going to see her.”
There was a moment of silence filled only with the crunching of snow as they began to walk again.
“Doctor?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you noticed how similar this place is to Narnia?”