‘Junk? Junk...Junk?’ said the Doctor, ‘This I have you, is a masterpiece of Earth engineering. These things can travel vast distances at supersonic speeds and as you can see, they are almost indestructible.’
‘I know it doesn’t look much but I can promise you it is quite safe.’ reassured Aymar.
Aymar sat in the front seat and invited his guests to sit in the three remaining seats. The Doctor sat beside him while Rory and Amy sat in the two back seats. Aymar powered up the transporter and it came to life with a whirring, buzzing sound. The transporter floated up into the air and lifted high above Aymar’s home. Amy waved back down to Aymar’s family as they descended rapidly upwards towards the glass panels of the dome.
‘Whee!’ screamed Amy.
‘Watch out, we’re going to crash into the dome.’ yelled Rory as the transporter looked certain to be in direct collision with the glass panels of the dome above them.
Suddenly the glass panels slid apart to create a large enough gap for the transporter to fly through onto the planet’s surface. The transporter now started to pick up speed. Amy looked down on the desert landscape terrain below, which transformed into a dusty blur before her eyes. A few minutes later the dusty blur transformed into a blue, marble, rocky panorama as they slowed down. The transporter dropped vertically downwards to land in a small flattened area, half way up the mountain.
The Doctor was the first of the four to get out of the transporter. He haughtily circled around the transporter, like a proud strutting peacock, with his nose pointed upwards. He wasn’t looking where he was going and stumbled to the floor. As he fell, he could feel the pain engulfing his body once more. He let out a loud scream which echoed back at him from the blue, marble mountain.
~~~
'This regression is gathering pace. I am transitioning through my previous persona more rapidly. We are running out of time. If we don’t find this fountain quickly, we will be stuck like this forever. Hurry this way.’ said the Doctor regaining his composure and pointing down the mountain path.
The Doctor moved a few steps down the smooth blue, marble path, only
to suddenly turn around completely and start to saunter swiftly in
completely the opposite direction up the mountain path.Before Aymar, Rory or Amy could react to the sudden change in direction; the Doctor had sprinted up the path leading higher up the stony, blue mountain and had disappeared round a corner. They heard a loud crashing sound and ran up to see what it was. As the Doctor came into view, they noticed that he had tripped over a pile of small, blue, marble rocks. He got up slowly and seemed to be searching for something in the pile until he finally picked up the rock that was most spherical in shape.
‘Ahh, not quite a cricket ball, but it will do.’ said the Doctor.
He took several strides as a run up, took a jump while simultaneously swivelling both his arms. He released the spherical rock expertly across the straight path, which was leading up to the cave’s entrance. The rock flew through the air at great speed and was about to pitch on the path, a few metres from the cave. As the rock hit the path, a loud explosion went off. The blast was so powerful that the Doctor and his three friends were thrown to the floor.
‘Well, I’ve often been told my bowling can be explosive, but I’ve never made this kind of impact before.’ said the Doctor.
‘It’s the HuHows, they mine the entrance of their caves to protect it from any unwelcome visitors.’ explained Aymar.
‘And this is definitely the cave where the fountain is?’ Amy queried.
‘I’m afraid it is, according to Aymar’s ancestral map.’ replied the Doctor.
‘Great, how will we get across that?’ asked Amy.
‘Brave heart Amy, just leave it to me.’ said the Doctor, ‘I’m sure we can sort this all out in no time at all, if everyone stays calm. You may want to brace yourselves for some more loud bangs.’
The Doctor picked up another small rock and bowled it down the path, this time without any run-up. As it landed, it too let off a mine. The Doctor repeated this several times each time landing the rock a few feet short of the last one. The path was now littered with craters a few feet apart.
‘Now that’s what’s called “bowling a good length”. Please be very careful and only step where I do.’ instructed the Doctor.
The Doctor jumped into the first crater and carefully traversed the path by jumping from crater to crater until the four of them had safely reached the cave’s entrance.
With all the explosions going off, the group had failed to notice that another transporter had landed further down the mountain, a few feet away from theirs. Dishi got out of his transporter and followed the sounds of the explosions.
He had managed to track Aymar’s old transporter from its heat emissions and this had led him directly here. The nine year old quickly hid behind a big boulder as the Doctor and his friends tip-toed across the path and into the cave.
The Doctor continued to tip-toe even though they were now inside the dark cave. He reached into his right pocket to pull out a torch. He could not be sure that the HuHows hadn’t also mined the inside of the cave. As he stepped forward he felt something under his right foot and for a second he thought his journey had come to an end. However, the loud explosion he was expecting didn’t happen. Instead he just caught a glimpse of a spike laden ball coming towards him at great speed. Rory could see that it was suspended from the roof of the cave by a rope and he immediately dived towards the Doctor to pull him down to prevent him being struck by the deadly ball. He succeeded in dragging the Doctor down and out of the way of the ball. The Doctor let out another cry in anguish and remained rooted to the floor as Rory got back to his feet.
‘Rory, watch out!’ Amy screamed as the ball swung back like a pendulum towards Rory’s back.
Rory reacted quickly and threw himself back down and found himself landing right on top of the Doctor. The Doctor now seemingly recovered from his latest painful angst, pushed Rory off. Meanwhile the ball had slowed sufficiently for Amy to catch hold of it and bring it to a stop. The Doctor got back on his feet and brushed himself down.
‘Rory Williams is an imbecile!’ he shouted and the words echoed around the dim-lit cavern several times before dissipating into the air, much to the amusement of Amy.
‘We must be careful. There are bound to be many more traps.’ said Aymar.
‘You know what is needed at times like this?’ said the Doctor.
‘What?’ inquired Aymar.
The Doctor reached into his left pocket and pulled out a small white paper bag filled with sweets.
‘Would you like a Jelly baby? I find they sharpen my senses.’
‘Sweets are only for grown-ups. We don’t have any need of them.’ stated Aymar in disgust.
‘You know, Aymar, There's no point being a child if you can't act like a grown-up sometimes.’
The Doctor waved the torch around the dark areas of the cave, until he saw something lying on the floor. It was the dead remains of a young human, lying next to the residue of a camp fire.
‘I see we aren’t the first visitors to this cave. By the look of things, all the flesh has been carved away and cooked on the fire.’ said the Doctor.
‘Look Doctor over there, there’s some light coming from that tunnel.’ Amy pointed out.
‘Well that can only be coming from the HuHows.’ said Aymar.
‘What shall we do?’ wondered Rory, ‘We’re done for!’
‘Well there’s nothing else for it, we’ll have to go back; we can’t possibly face those terrifying man-eating HuHows. I can tell from your desperation that the effects of the sedative are wearing off. Seriously though, we have no choice. If we don’t find that fountain then we’re finished anyway. Rory and Amy, I’ve got news for you, we can either risk dying here in the cave or live our remaining years as brain-dead morons.’ said the Doctor.
‘Fine Doctor, we won’t be afraid.’ said Amy.
‘Good, this way then.’ the Doctor said as he proceeded to casually stroll down the tunnel towards the light until he entered another cavern. This cavern however was not empty but filled with at least twenty HuHows.
‘Excuse me, I’m the Doctor. Can you kind gentlemen help me? I'm here to find “The Fountain of Maturity”. You don't happen to have seen it anywhere, have you. You know sprinkles of water flying everywhere, that sort of thing.’ said the Doctor to the HuHows.
The HuHows looked puzzled by the Doctor’s words, but they just yawned at them menacingly in unison. They circled around their four uninvited guests. One of the HuHows, who was much taller and larger than the rest stepped forward and struck the Doctor full on his chest. The Doctor held his chest from the pain of the blow but at the same time he winced from another internal spasm.
The Doctor stood back up and immediately adopted a Karate ‘Zenkutsu’ forward stance. He beckoned the same HuHow to attack him once more. As the HuHow lunged forward the Doctor let out a loud ‘Aieee’ as his fist came down and struck the HuHow on the shoulder. The HuHow was surprised by the power of the Doctor’s blow, but got up instantly to respond. He circled round the Doctor waiting for the right moment to pounce on him, but each time the Doctor expertly side-stepped him.
The HuHow was beginning to lose patience now and attacked with a renewed frenzy. He wildly threw himself at the Doctor, who manoeuvred himself underneath him. Somehow he managed to get the HuHow in a headlock before pushing him down to the ground. The other HuHows, who had been watching their leader battle the Doctor, now reacted angrily and closed the circle on the Doctor and his friends.
The group were totally surrounded and any hope of escape seemed to have been extinguished. Rory was unable to control himself from the impending attack from the HuHows. He put both his hands to his face and let out a loud infantile wail, while simultaneously bursting into tears. Amy closed her eyes while cradling her head in her arms to protect herself. She braced herself for the attack and waited for the blows to strike her body. She waited and waited but no blows came. She eventually opened her eyes to find that the entire chamber had been left deserted by the HuHows. She could see only the Doctor, Aymar and Rory, who was continuing to wail helplessly like a baby. She got up to try and console him but he just carried on wailing.
‘What happened, Doctor?’ asked Amy.
‘It seems your young man here has saved the day.’ proclaimed the Doctor, ‘The HuHows obviously found his wailing and screaming upset their auditory senses and couldn’t bear it.’
‘Doctor, they may not be the only ones. Can you please get him to stop?’ added Aymar.
‘I’ll try an old Venusian Lullaby I know, it usually does the trick.’ said the Doctor as he tried to comfort Rory.
He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and put it in a vibrating mode. He held it up just inches from Rory’s bawling eyes.
‘Klokhleda partha menin klatch, Aroon Aroon Aroon, Klokhleda sheenah tierra natch, Aroon Aroon Aroon, Aroon Aroon Aroon.’ sang the Doctor softly.
The Doctor repeated the tune until slowly Rory seemed to come to his senses and ceased his wailing and crying.
‘I’m glad that worked or I would have had to reverse the polarity of the sonic waves. Now where is this mysterious fountain that we’re looking for?’
‘There is nothing here, just one big, empty cave.’ said Amy.
‘Are you sure it was meant to be here, Doctor?’ said Rory.
“Well according to the map, this is the place. I am certain of it!’ declared the Doctor confidently.
He paced up and down the cavern and suddenly fell down to his knees clutching his chest.
‘It’s happening again. Only two more to go!’ he cried out.
Amy and Rory helped the Doctor up as his pain started to ease.
‘Thank You, Amy, I may call you Amy, maint I?’ asked the Doctor sheepishly as he surveyed his surroundings.
‘Of course Doctor, you can call me what you like, but we must find this fountain or we’ll be stuck like this forever.’
‘Oh my word, I was forgetting that, I am still a little disoriented by these changes.’ said the Doctor, ‘Now I wonder where it can be? These HuHows don’t have much of a sense of décor, do they? They even have rocks stuck up on the ceilings.’
‘Never mind the décor Doctor, where is the fountain?’ shouted Rory.