| Date: 20 January 2008
Characters: Rhiannon St. Claire, Koschei Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #41671 |
 Rhia darted through the door as soon as there was enough room to do so, calling out cheerfully, "Uncle Jack!"Only to skid to a stop, rolling her eyes at the wooded area she'd ended up in instead. "Oh, very funny Gran, Uncle Jack's so going to have a fit at you." She paused, waiting for a long moment, the grin on her face fading as there was no response. "Gran?" Nothing. "Dad, there's something...." She stopped, staring over her shoulder at more woodland, and no door, no dad, no mom, nothing but more of the same trees as in front of her. "This isn't funny. Uncle Jack? Dad, mom? Gran? Anyone?" She bit her lower lip a moment, reaching into her pocket to curl a hand around the book of photos there. "Dad? Uncle Jack? Doctor? Please, guys, this isn't funny anymore, you can come out now. Really." |
 "No one's going to answer," Koschei said, peeking up and over the bush that he'd been rooting through at the girl who...well, she looked around his age, maybe a little bit older. "It's just me," He said, ducking back down into the bush."But you're welcome to join me while you wait for the exit to open back up." |
| "No one else is here?" Rhia crept over to the bush, poking her head around to stare at the boy. "Just you and me, and no one else at all?" |
| "No. There are people here. They're just in town," Koschei said, raising a finger to point through the thick foliage at the outline of a townscape on the horizon. "But they're not close enough to hear shouting." |
| "Oh." Rhia peered over at the town a moment before looking back to the boy. "I'm Rhiannon St. Claire. But all my friends call me Ri, and you can too. What's your name?" |
| "My friends call me Koschei," He said, smiling up at her. "But my name is significantly longer than that. Did I hear you right? Were you looking for the Doctor?" |
| Rhia shugged, sitting on the ground, pulling out her picture-book. "He's not always the most useful when someone decides to open a new Door, but sometimes he can keep Mum from shooting people better than Dad. And Mum's going to be so upset when she finds out I'm missing again. Actually, so's Gran, if this isn't one of the Halls." She held out the book. "Actually, if you know any of these people? They're family, sorta. Uncle Jack, and his team and the Doctor, and my mum and dad, and Aunt Solfi and Aunt Ami." |
| "The Doctor is in the town," Koschei said, smiling brightly. "He's a good friend of mine, actually," He said as he took the book and flipped through it slowly, nodding. "A lot of these people are there." |
| "You're a friend of the Doctor?" Rhia smiled, her eyes bright with curiosity and interest. "Really? He's a friend of my mum and dad. Well, that regeneration was the one my mum traveled with, at least, and dad met him, too." She nodded at the book. "But he's regenerated since, and mum isn't exactly happy with him. He said she nearly broke his nose the first time she saw him after he regenerated. That was only a few days after I was born. He's fun, when he comes to visit, though mum told him if he even thought about taking me traveling, ever, she would tie him up in a cage with a 'were on the full moon." |
| "That's not much of a threat," Koschei said. "She should have said she's sic a vampire on him. Time Lords don't like vampires much," Koschei said with a shudder. |
| "You haven't met a were on full moon, have you?" Rhia gave Koschei a serious, and slightly wide-eyed look. "They're mean. And over-sexed. The Doctor says he'd really not like to know if he's capable of catching that particular virus." She opened the book to the picture of Solfi a moment, tapping it with her finger. "Aunt Solfi's a vampire, and she's very nice. She and the Doctor get along sometimes. Except the one time he accidentally landed the TARDIS in her house. He couldn't step foot in New York for a whole year after that without getting himself arrested." |
| Koschei looked briefly confused before shaking it off. He wasn't going to ask. Really, he wasn't. Sometimes questions were better left unanswered. (Really, who was he kidding with that one? But he'd rather not end up in some sort of argument. Koschei didn't understand how it was possible for a vampire to be 'very nice'.) "New York? Where's that?" |
| "That's in the United States. On Earth," she added because she remembered the Doctor wasn't from Earth, and she didn't think Koschei was either. Not if he was confused about vampires like her Aunt Solfi. "It's where I was born, and where Aunt Solfi and Aunt Ami live. Where do you come from?" |
| "Gallifrey," Koschei said. "It's a long ways from Earth. Same galaxy but different sectors." |
| Rhia nodded. "The Doctor told me. And Gran says it's a pity it's gone, 'cause she rather liked popping in on the Doctor's family every once in a while. Even if the Time Lords in general were.. well, um, Gran is very rude about them sometimes. She calls them thieves." She looked down, fidgeting. "Gran's one of the fey. She doesn't like most of the people from Gallifrey. Didn't. Tenses get all weird when talking about time like they do." |
| Koschei just stared for a long moment. If he hadn't seen the things that he had here, he would have sworn that she was lying through her teeth. As it was. "I'm from before it was gone," Koschei said. "Same age as the Doctor. Well, not now, obviously. But we were in the same class." |
| "Oh, neat!" Rhia smiled again, mischief in her expression. "Tell me what the Doctor was like when he was a kid?" She had a fleeting thought of finally being able to include the Doctor in one one of the jokes, but dismissed it with a shake of her head. Her mum would leave her with Aunt Ami for a week if she did that. And that was boring. |
| "Brilliant," Koschei said, grinning. "He always had the best ideas. And we'd skip class whenever we were bored and go play down by the river Lethe. He could always get the stones to skip longer than I could. I've almost got ten, but last time, he had one that did twelve." |
| "Oh, cool! I haven't skipped rocks before, but it's hard to skip rocks when there are waves in the way. Dad and mum take me to Hawaii for vacation when we're not going to Cardiff, and it's all ocean there." She sighed, pouting a little. "And no one at Torchwood really knows how to have fun except Uncle Jack, and Uncle Jack doesn't think that Cardiff Bay is good for skipping rocks." |
| "There's a lake," Koschei said, brightening a bit. "Here. Just on the other side of the town," He said. "I could show you how." |
| "Really?" Rhia tucked her book back into her pocket as she stood up, reaching out to grab Koschei's hand. "Come on, then! Show me!" She wanted to see the lake as much as learn how to skip rocks, and the thought that she should find an adult she knew was shoved into the back of her mind. After all, she could always find an adult later. Right now, she could have fun! |