“Could this be a test?” asked Nivere.
“Well if it isn’t then I’m Santa Claus. Again.”
“What do you suggest we do, Doctor?” asked Nivere, as the sand creature took on it’s finished form of a large, faceless demon-figure.
“Run?” said the Doctor, already backing away.
The both of them ran around the edge of the sand pit and headed off back into the jungle. They could hear the scraping and grating of sand behind them and realised that if they couldn’t get away then they’d be in big trouble.
“How the hell can that thing be alive?” asked Nivere, lagging slightly behind the Doctor.
“Need you be asking that question, Captain? You’ve seen Tressure’s powers,” replied the Doctor, leaping over vines. “Unless of course the sand is actually inhabited by living, breathing sand creatures and that, I’m afraid, sounds more unlikely.”
A tree came crashing down behind them and the sand demon pushed it’s way through the trees as if they were made of matchsticks. The thing had now grown a hideous, roaring mouth complete with sharp, sand teeth. Suddenly an old man dived out in front of them, causing the Doctor to stop suddenly which in turn made Captain Nivere crash into his back.
It was Slavin.
“Now, what do you want?” asked the Doctor, scrambling to his feet.
“Go back and face it like a true man,” snarled Slavin.
The Doctor looked back and saw the sand demon almost on top of them. “I’m afraid that’s going to be a little bit difficult. That thing’s a monster in case you haven’t noticed.”
Slavin’s eyes widened and he advanced on them, spear in hand. “You will go back and not advance any further.”
“Now look, this isn’t fair,” complained Nivere.
“Agreed. If your God is going to test us then he could at least give us each test one at a time. Why’s he sent you?”
Slavin charged forward and the Doctor stepped aside as if doing some strange form of bull fight. “Oh, not good enough, my man,” laughed the Doctor.
“You shall die!”
There was a roar and Slavin looked behind him at the huge sand monster casting a shadow over them. It towered above them and was looking at Slavin with interest.
“My lord,” stuttered Slavin, “save me.”
There was no reply and Slavin felt a trickle of sweat run down the side of his face. He gulped and lowered his spear to the ground.
The Doctor was about to grab Slavin and pull him away when he felt himself being pulled back by Nivere.
“Captain Nivere, please let me go!”
“No, Doctor. That old man’s given us a diversion and we can make our escape.”
“No!”
Nivere raised her gun. “Yes.”
The Doctor was getting a little tired of having a gun pointed at his head and he followed Nivere reluctantly as Slavin got to his knees and prayed to his God. The sand creature seemed to smile and the grains dropped from it’s twisted mouth as it brought it’s hands down on Slavin with a crash.
But the sand simply smashed against him and then fell to the ground. Why wasn’t he dead? Maybe his God had saved him. Yes, of course, that’s what it was. He began to smile and shake with happiness. His God had saved him from death.
But then he began to feel a little…different. His eyes began to quiver as he realised his feet where going cold. He looked down and to his horror realised the whole lower part of his body was turning to sand. After a few seconds the rest of his body had followed suit. He gagged for air as the sand crept up his face and totally consumed him. Skin, flesh and blood turning into sharp, brown grains of sand. Then, with a roar, the sand creature booted the strange sand-statue of Slavin into a million grains. The grains dropped to the floor and the sand creature continued it’s pursuit of the Doctor and Nivere.
Caroline had felt this feeling before. The feeling of falling through nothing. It was while you were asleep and you thought you were falling out of bed and then suddenly awoke with a start. She’d read it was supposed to be your soul slipping out of your body for a few seconds and then jumping back in. Well this wasn’t her soul - this was very real.
“Caroline?” came Ivy’s voice.
“Ivy, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m to your right.”
Caroline turned and saw Ivy slowly floating down with her. “How can you be so calm?”
“Believe me I’ve been in worse scrapes than this.”
“Why are we falling so slowly?” asked Dennington who was also nearby.
“Perhaps we are in space,” offered Dunjan.
“Don’t say that!” shouted Caroline as their motion increased.
After a few seconds of screaming and panicking their motion slowed again and they touched down safely. Things began to blur back into existence and they discovered they were in a circular, stone room with a stained glass window up above them.
“What is this place?” asked Caroline.
“Just another bag of tricks from Tressure I expect. Let’s get out of here before the magic show starts,” said Dennington.
“Wait!” shouted Ivy. “I think I see the TARDIS up ahead.”
“What?” said Caroline in disbelief.
But sure enough the blue police box was standing amid the floating colours
“But it’s not possible,” said Caroline to herself and then raced after the others.
The door of the TARDIS opened and they went inside. After a moment there was a wheezing and groaning sound and the time machine disappeared.
They were now standing in the TARDIS console room. Danny and the Doctor were at the console and the Doctor was busy flicking switches. Around Danny’s neck was the Eye, glowing green.
“This place is something else,” said Dennington in wonderment.
“Doctor, what’s going on?” asked Caroline, completely confused and feeling as though she’d accidentally skipped a few pages of a particularly confusing book.
“I managed to get to Tressure and I defeated him,” said the Doctor, turning and grinning.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” smiled Danny.
“Why does Danny have the Eye?” asked Dennington.
“It must be destroyed,” warned Dunjan darkly.
“It was given to me by Tressure,” smiled Danny, “and then we killed him.”
“You killed him in cold blood, Doctor?” asked Ivy.
“Of course. There was no other way.”
“There’s always another way,” said Ivy. “Or at least there used to always be another way. You taught me that.”
“Not today!”
The Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS lurched sideways. Everyone fell against the back wall except for Danny and the Doctor who had stayed calm and fixed to their positions.
“What’s going on?” asked Dunjan.
“I’m afraid we’re having a few problems,” laughed the Doctor.
Ivy was about to make a run for the Doctor, but the doors opened and sucked them all out into the coloured space/time vortex. The TARDIS exploded and caused a blast that blackened the colours and threw them into a grassy area outside a castle wall. The real world again.
Ivy opened one eye and then closed it again. “I can’t work out if Tressure is just having a laugh or wants to seriously pee me off.”
There was a growl and they all sat bolt upright. Standing to their right a few metres away was Yentob.
“Not him again,” said Caroline.
“Time to run?” asked Dunjan.
“No,” replied Dennington.
“What?” they all said in unison.
“I’ve had enough of running. It’s time to face this man.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Ivy.
“How exactly are we going to fight him?” asked Caroline.
“I…don’t know.”
“Mark is right, though,” said Dunjan. “We can’t go on running. It’s time for us to stand up to Tressure.”
Yentob’s eyes glowed green and he began sprinting towards them.
“Well you better think fast,” said Caroline nervously, as the savage man came closer.
As Yentob approached, the others backed away, but Dennington stood his ground, and at the last moment raised his fist and punched Yentob square in the jaw.
The young man was taken aback and fell to the floor, clutching his jaw in agony.
“Now, what’s your problem mate?” asked Dennington, crouching down and looking at the possessed man.
“Must kill!” He jumped to his feet and brought down Dennington with one swipe.
“Mark!” Dunjan leapt in front of Dennington before Yentob could do anymore damage. “That is enough!”
Dunjan closed his eyes and began mumbling incomprehensive words.
Yentob’s face creased and turned into a look of terror. He backed off and began sobbing as Dunjan continued chanting. And then, with a howl, he turned and ran towards the main castle tower. The old man opened his eyes and smiled to himself.
“What did you do?” asked Ivy.
“Oh, I just used a little bit of magic.”
“But you said you couldn’t use magic this close to Tressure,” said Dennington, rubbing his bruised chin.
“I took a chance. It appears Tressure’s mind was too occupied to hold his barrier against me. He’s probably got his mind on a lot of things. Possessing that fellow there, watching your friends outside the castle and keeping an eye on that Danny boy.”
“So there’s a chance we can break through and defeat him?” asked Caroline, hopefully.
“It looks like there might be. You can‘t keep throwing juggling balls into the air and hope to catch every single one all of the time.” Dunjan turned and grinned at the others.
Yentob ran into the main chamber of the castle and cowered on the floor in front of Tressure and Danny.
“You fool!” yelled Tressure. “You stupid, pathetic fool.”
“What happened?” asked Danny.
“This fools weak mind allowed the old mans magic to penetrate it.”
“He should be punished,” said Daniel coldly.
“Yes,” smiled Tressure. He turned to Danny. “What would you suggest?”
“This man is religious. Throw him outside the walls, cut him off from your divine power.”
“No…” sobbed Yentob.
“Yes. His punishment will be the separation from his God forever!”
Yentob screamed as a green cloud engulfed him. He disappeared and Tressure clapped his hands in glee.
Yentob was face down in what felt (and tasted) like sand. He coughed and looked up. The sky was there and tree’s hung over him as if they were gazing down on a piece of rubbish. He felt some kind of loss. He’d lost his mother when he was young, but this was different. His God had left him.
Yentob cried out in pain and sadness and collapsed to the ground. The one thing he had tried to worship for his short young life had abandoned him.
A little while later he could hear a heavy thumping sound coming from beyond the trees. The sound got louder and soon Yentob could make out the shape of some strange sand monster looming over the tops of the trees. Then he heard two people running - the Doctor and Captain Nivere
It hadn’t taken long for the fugitives to find cover. Almost as soon as Yentob had run, the guards had begun advancing on them. Through quickness, though, they were able to elude the guards and sneak into a small stone building near to the main building of the fortress. The room was cold and damp and straw lay on the floor, but they were all relieved to grab a few seconds rest.
“I’m starving,” said Caroline as she sat on the floor.
“Food’s the last thing on my mind,” said Dennington. “We can’t stay here long.”
“Agreed,” said Dunjan. “Once Tressure regains his full powers he’ll find us and the tests will begin again.”
“It’s like some savage circle,” said Ivy. “Every time we run he gets us. We get away and have a break, and then he starts it again. What do we do?”
“Like I said,” Dennington began. “We fight him.”
“It does seem like our only choice,” said Caroline grimly.
“Then it’s time we formulated a plan.”
A gust of wind blew in from the outside and Dunjan gripped his staff tighter. “It looks like we don’t have time for that.”
“Let’s go,” said Dennington. “Let’s go and defeat this monster.”
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