Chapter Text
SYNOPSIS
Aileana (Ah-lee-ah-na) has been leading a calm, pleasant life in her little cottage in the middle of a forest a dozen miles west of Inverness, Scotland. Having been alive for 333 years now, she has perfected a routine where she remains hidden from the townspeople except when they seek her for her healing abilities. But in 1563, the Scottish Parliament enacts the Scottish Witchcraft Act, making both the practice of witchcraft and consulting with witches a capital offence. With witch hunts becoming more popular by the end of the century, Aileana's peaceful sanctuary is jeopardized and she eventually has to leave her home of the last 250 years. It just happens to coincide with an encounter between the witch and two time travellers in a blue police box.
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"Scotland?" The Doctor looked at the monitor of the TARDIS in confusion, pulling out the pair of glasses that he definitely doesn't need to make sure he read right.
"We're back in Scotland? Already?" Rose asked from beside him.
"Yeah, but at a different time it seems," he answered, face scrunched up as he read the information displayed to him. "Better take a look and see why the TARDIS brought us here," he abruptly stood up, pocketing his glasses in his suit then making his way to the door, grabbing his long brown coat on the way.
Rose followed behind him, arms crossed over her chest in discomfort. "Which year is it though?" She asked once the two stood outside. The TARDIS had materialized in a forest, shades of green enveloping them from everywhere. "I'm not really in the mood to walk around Scotland when the Queen just banished us."
"Oh, we'll be fine," the Doctor quickly reassured her. "We're somewhere in the late 16th century, a couple centuries before Vicky's rule. But why are we here?" He wondered aloud, his head moving around as he analyzed his surroundings.
"Has it ever happened before?"
The Doctor turned to face her, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
"That the TARDIS sends you to the same location twice in a row but not in the same time period?"
"Well..." the alien drawled out, tugging at his ear as he thought it over. "Occasionally. It doesn't happen often but it's not rare enough for it to be concerning. And we're not exactly in the same location either. This time, we're a little to the west of Inverness."
Rose was about to question him more but their conversation came to an abrupt end when a high pitched scream resounded from around them. The Doctor quickly took off, seeming to have a better understanding of where the scream came from, and the blonde followed in his steps, the adrenaline of travelling with the Doctor coursing through her veins.
The duo came to a stop when, across a wide enough stream to make them consider if it was worth crossing on foot or not, they saw a young woman on the ground, scrambling away from a giant creature with its jaws opened wide at her.
Rose stared at it, she had never seen anything like it before. It looked like a giant salamander with three horns on its head and stood at least eight feet tall. "What is that?" The girl wondered.
The Doctor, who had a grim look on his face, answered without removing his eyes from the creature. "It's a Va'juc and it shouldn't be here."
"Yeah, I guessed that part alright," the blonde retorted. "What should we do?"
The alien inhaled sharply, trying to come up with a solution to save the villager on the other side of the stream. "We need to immobilize it before it can eat that woman."
"Before it what?!"
"Yeah, we need to act fast," he quickly glanced at her and when he turned his head forward again, he noticed another woman running towards the creature, her hands holding the skirts of her beige smock and dark green kirtle so she could move faster as her long, red wavy hair flew behind her. "What is she doing?" The Doctor voiced his question aloud, eyebrows furrowing even deeper in confusion.
The woman came to a stop in between the Va'juc and the villager and moved her arms around as she seemed to say something, which faintly sounded like Scottish Gaelic but the Doctor couldn't be sure. Then, she raised her arms up and with it, long vines erupted from the earth, enveloping the Va'juc's legs and keeping it trapped in place.
"Seems like she got the job done," Rose remarked with a smile, tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth.
The Doctor stared at the redhead in disbelief, much less amused than his companion. None of what he just saw made sense. But before he could dwell longer on the strange woman, he took off in a run through the stream as he yelled at her to stop when he noticed the stance she was in and the look in her eyes.
The woman, who was ready to attack the terrifying alien, turned her head to face him in disbelief. "Did you just ask me to stop?" She asked him, almost offended to have been interrupted.
He was going to answer, tell her killing the alien wasn't a solution, but he didn't get to as the villager on the ground scrambled up to her feet, looking more frightened than before. "A witch," she mumbled lowly then her voice grew louder. "You're a witch!" She pointed an accusing finger at the redhead, who could only stare in fright, before breaking into a run, in what the Doctor assumed to be the direction of the village.
"Oh no," the redheaded woman crumbled down to her knees and one hand came to rest on her chest as her breathing quickened.
But as she fell, so did the vines that kept the Va'juc immobilized. The Doctor, having reached her side of the stream, ran up to her and helped her stand up. "Come on." He said, pulling the woman away from the alien with him. "We've gotta go."
His hand grasped her wrist and he made to run across the stream again but the woman stood in place. "I have to go to my cottage and hide everything before the villagers come for me."
"What?"
She didn't give him an answer and instead broke loose of his hold as she started running in the opposite direction of where the villager she had rescued took off. The Doctor shared a look with Rose, who had crossed the stream in the meantime, and the two followed the redheaded woman deeper in the woods.
"Excuse me! Where are you going?!" The Doctor yelled after her. "We have to take care of the Va'juc!"
But she didn't stop, she didn't even turn around to acknowledge him, she just kept running, dodging low branches and jumping over tree roots with a certain familiarity, until a small cottage appeared in the middle of the woods. She dashed for the door, not even taking the time to close it behind her, so the Doctor and Rose welcomed themselves in the little house. Herbs hung everywhere but the two time travellers couldn't appreciate the coziness of the redhead's home as she was scrambling around, gathering parchment scrolls, herbs and vials to put in a big, dark brown shoulder bag.
"Excuse me?" The Doctor tried to get her attention again but in vain.
"Are you really a witch?" Rose asked her question and that seemed to get a reaction out of her.
"O-Of course not," she stuttered. "I'm not a witch, why, why would you say that?"
"But we saw you grow vines to trap the Va'juc!" The blonde argued.
"Come now Rose, there's no such thing as magic," the Doctor reprimanded his companion.
"That was just... a trick of the mind!" The woman poorly lied. "Yeah, that was your mind playing tricks on you."
The Doctor frowned at her answer. He didn't believe in magic or the supernatural but there was definitely something strange about the woman and she wasn't doing a good job hiding it. "No, no, I saw it too."
"Then both of your minds are playing tricks on you," she said and went back to packing her bag in an attempt to end the conversation.
"Why are you packing a bag then?" Rose questioned, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Because that girl definitely alerted the townspeople and it's only a matter of time before they find me and burn me at the stake," she explained then crouched down and searched under her desk. "Rab, it's not the time to hide! We have to go."
"But you said you aren't a witch," Rose pointed out, face full of confusion.
"I'm not," she quickly confirmed as she moved to a different corner of her cottage but the Doctor noticed the not so subtle wave of her hand that produced catnip to bloom from her fingers. He was about to say something but the sound of cauldrons falling to the floor caught him off guard. "There you are Rab," the woman said, picking up a black cat in her arms. "Now where did I leave my healing book?" She asked herself, turning around to scan the room.
The cat meowed, as if it was answering her. She walked over to a desk in the far right corner of the cottage, moving around a pile of dried herbs and parchment with the hand that wasn't holding the animal and found the book she was looking for. "You were right, thank you little guy," she said to the cat.
"Did she just talk with her cat?" Rose whispered to the Doctor.
"Many people talk to their cats," the alien countered.
"Yeah but it looked like she actually understood what it said."
The Doctor didn't reply, nothing was making sense to him.
"Who are you exactly?" Rose asked the woman who was going through her bag, probably to make sure she had everything she needed.
"I'm Aileana, this is Rab," she pointed to her cat. "I'd love to talk more but I have to go before they find me."
Aileana quickly moved around the pair and exited the cottage, trekking through a different part of the forest from where they came from. The time travellers followed behind her, there was too much abnormality surrounding her for them to just let her go.
"I'm Rose, he's the Doctor," the blonde introduced themselves.
"Nice to meet you," Aileana didn't bother turning around to face them.
"Where are you going?" Rose continued with her questions.
"I- I don't know." Aileana came to a stop. "Oh it's been so long since I last moved, why did I have to be so reckless," she mumbled to herself, pulling the roots of her hair in desperation.
"Did you know what that creature was?" The Doctor finally spoke up, circling the conversation back to the other alien in the woods.
"No, not really," the redhead turned around to face them as she talked. "It appeared about two weeks ago, townspeople wandering in the woods started going missing and it was going to draw unwanted attention towards me. So I searched for it, but every time I found it I was too late. It was already... feasting on them, tearing their flesh apart." She gulped down, her eyes glazing over, seeing horrors that weren't in front of her but engraved in her mind. "I've never seen anything like it before but I knew I had to stop it, even if I didn't know how. It isn't only attacking humans, it's also eating the animals of the forest. Poor Rab hasn't been able to step outside out of fear for two weeks. So when I heard that girl screaming, I knew it was my chance to stop it. But you ruined it." She angrily stared at the Doctor, who was about to defend himself but she didn't let him. "Not only could I not kill that vile creature but I now also have to abandon my home because everyone knows I'm a witch."
"I thought you said you weren't a witch," Rose quirked up an eyebrow.
"Oh, what's the use in denying it anymore," Aileana rolled her eyes.
"But witchcraft, magic, all of that stuff's not real!" The Doctor exclaimed, incredulous.
Aileana didn't say anything, she just opened up her free hand and recited something in Gaelic as a sprout grew in her palm. Rose gasped in surprise and approached her, wanting to have a closer look of her magic.
"But that's not possible!" The Doctor retorted again in a high pitch.
"You're an alien who travels through time and space in a police box that's bigger on the inside, I think magic can very much be possible," Rose argued, her eyes never leaving the sprout that was now evolving into a plant.
"Witchcraft," Aileana corrected her.
"No, no, that's not possible," the Doctor shook his head in denial and also approached the redhead to scan her with his sonic screwdriver. "You must be alien or something, there's no way a human can–" He interrupted his rambling when he read the results of his scan. "Huh. Human. But there's something in your biology that's different..." He drawled out in thought, scratching his lightly stubbled jaw.
"That's probably because I'm 333 years old," Aileana revealed. The two time travellers stared at her in disbelief. "What? I don't look it I hope."
"Not at all," Rose told her. "I thought you were 27, 30 at best."
"Why thank you," the redhead smirked as she readjusted her hold on her cat. "Witches don't physically age past the age of thirty, I'm glad to know I look even younger than that."
"Anyway, back to the Va'juc," the Doctor interrupted, growing bored. Humans, he thought derisively. The two girls could find time to get to know each other after the whole thing with the dangerous alien was done. "We need to capture it before it attacks someone else."
"But how do we find it?" Rose questioned.
"I might be able to help with that," Aileana softly spoke up. "I know this forest like the back of my hand and the more I've encountered the..."
"Va'juc." The Doctor helped her.
"The more I've encountered the Va'juc, the easier it's been for me to pick up its emotions," the redhead finished explaining.
"You can do that?" Rose asked in awe.
"One of the many great things about forest witches," she proudly smiled. "I can communicate with animals by picking up their feelings. It also helps that I'm an Empath."
The blonde smiled at her with wonder in her eyes. Of everything she has seen through her travels with the Doctor, this took the cake. A real life witch, and a human witch at that! Not some alien from a planet far away but a human witch like the ones told in fairytales. Although Aileana was nothing like the evil witches in the stories. Rose thought she was more like a forest fairy.
The Doctor on the other hand stared at the redhead with wariness, but also with intrigue. Yes, she felt like an anomaly to him, she proved that he could be wrong about things he was so certain of he could've bet the safety of the entire Universe on it, but she was also something new, something he had no knowledge of, and it tickled his brain in the most pleasant way.
"Okay," he shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "So you use your..." he trailed off, not wanting to admit to the existence of the supernatural yet.
"Witchcraft," Aileana said for him.
"To find the Va'juc and then you immobilize it with your vines." The Doctor said.
"And then what?" Rose questioned.
"We need to find how it got here and if there's a way to transport it back to where it came from," he replied.
"How do we do that?"
"I'll make it up as we go," the Doctor dismissed her question. "Alright, Aileana, can you find it?"
"Well yeah, just give me some time," she answered and handed Rab to Rose. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, projecting her powers as far as she could in the hopes of locating the Va'juc. It was hard to do, especially when all of the other animals mingled in her search field, but she eventually ended up succeeding.
"I found it," Aileana said. "Follow me."
She started walking in the opposite direction, the two time travellers following behind her, although Rose was a little slower than usual as she was busy playing with Rab in her arms.
"Why did you name him Rab?" The blonde wondered aloud.
"I'm sorry?" Aileana turned her head as she continued walking.
"Your cat," Rose pointed out. "Why did you name him Rab? What does it mean?"
"Oh," the redhead giggled, back to facing forward. "Rab is a more original name for Robert, and I named him after my friend Robert, as a way to remember him."
"He must've meant a lot to you that Robert," Rose mused.
"Not just to me, but to the entire country," Aileana replied with a smile the other two couldn't see.
"Oh yeah?" The Doctor, who had been pretending not to be interested by their conversation since it started, now voiced his intrigue. "Who was that Robert fellow?"
"Robert the Bruce."
"You've met him?" The alien took three long strides to fall into step with the redhead.
"Of course I have, I spent the winter of 1306-07 hiding from the English with him," she answered casually with a wave of her hand.
The Doctor gawked at her, too amazed by that information to try to put on an indifferent face. "Fascinating. How was he?"
He noticed the look of nostalgic longing that took over her features for a moment. "Like the brother I never knew I needed," she smiled in thought.
The Doctor fondly grinned at her, forgetting for a moment that she was everything he didn't believe in. "Hopefully I'll get to meet him someday," he said, turning his gaze away from her and towards the greenery of the trees surrounding them.
"And how would you do that?" She quizzically looked at the side of his face. "He's been dead for almost three hundred years."
"You're not the only one who can do magic," he playfully said.
"You're a warlock?" Aileana questioned.
"Oh no, no, not like that," the Doctor quickly denied.
"Then what are you?"
"You could say I'm from out of this world," he grinned impishly.
"Like the Va'juc?"
"Like the Va'juc, yes."
Aileana blinked at him in confusion. "But you look so..."
"Human?" She nodded her head. "You'd be surprised by the amount of alien races in the Universe who look just like you," he mused.
"Mhm, I'd like to see you try," Aileana bantered, catching the Doctor off guard. He hadn't expected her to be the type to repartee. Before he could quip back, she grabbed a hold of his elbow to bring him to a stop and crouch down behind a bush, Rose following suit. "The Va'juc is right there. What's the plan now?"
The two girls turned to look at the Doctor, waiting for him to tell them what to do.
"Aileana, you said you're an Empath, right?" He asked her. "And that you can communicate with animals through their emotions?"
The redhead nodded her head yes, slowly getting where he was headed with his questions. "You want me to communicate with it?"
"Yes, try to find out where it came from and how it got here, and let it know that we're not here to harm it but to help it," he explained. "Can you do that?"
"I-I guess," she stuttered, not so sure of herself now. "I've never done that with a, what did you call it, an alien?"
"I'm sure you can do it," he smiled softly at her. So far, she had only seen two sides of him: wary and intrigued. The expression on his face felt foreign to her, almost abnormal, but she accepted it nonetheless. Rab decided to loudly meow at that moment. "I think he agrees with me," the Doctor nodded his head in the direction of the animal in Rose's arms.
"He did, actually," Aileana confirmed, also smiling, and stood before slowly approaching the Va'juc.
The Doctor and Rose heard her speak in Scottish Gaelic as she moved her arms in the same way she did when they first met her two hours ago. They saw vines sprout out of the ground and tangle around the alien's legs, immobilizing it.
Aileana turned around in their direction, the look on her face asking: "What do I do? Why aren't you joining me?"
"You should do it alone, we don't wanna scare it," the Doctor whispered loudly enough so she could hear him. "We'll be right here though, you got this!" He raised his hands in two encouraging thumbs up, toothy smile on his features.
Aileana nodded her head in understanding and took a deep breath in before facing the creature again. She slowly walked in front of it, both hands raised up in a way that meant no harm, and sent pulses of calmness and safety. The Va'juc, who had been trashing around, trying to pull free of the vines, calmed down after a dozens of seconds.
"Is it working?" Rose whispered to the Doctor, eyes never leaving the scene before her.
"I think it is," he whispered back.
Aileana was using her energy like she hadn't done before. Everything in her was screaming to run far from the alien, or even kill it to assure hers and everybody else's safety, but she had to block those feelings from being conveyed to the Va'juc or else this would all be for nothing. And the force of the feelings she was receiving from the creature, they were so intense, so deeply sad, that she felt tears rolling down her cheeks unwillingly.
"Is she okay?" Rose worried upon noticing the tears coming out of the witch's closed eyes.
"She is," the Doctor reassured his companion. "It's the Va'juc, it's just the force of its feelings that's overwhelming her."
"How do you know?"
"Because I can feel them too, on a certain level. Not quite like her, she's an Empath and I'm a Telepath. Quite different but we share some similarities. In my instance, I can faintly feel others' emotions," he explained to her.
The duo waited a few more minutes in silence, observing Aileana in action, before she waved them over, signalling it was fine for them to come out of their hiding spot.
"So?" The Doctor asked her, trying to hide his impatience. He could tell the work she had just done did a number on her.
Aileana opened her eyes, more tears coming out of them as she did so. "It's just a baby," she told them. "It doesn't know how it ended up here. Or where it's from, it was quite vague and blurry. I'm sorry."
The Doctor gripped her shoulders and leaned down to her height. "You did great," he reassured her. Aileana had a hard time believing his words, he could tell, but she still accepted his praise with a nod of her head and a small, shy smile.
"So what now, Doctor?" Rose asked from beside him.
"Well, it'd be hard to track the herd it came from," he tugged at his ear as he tried to come up with a solution. "But if we get it closer to the TARDIS, I think I have some tools in there that could help us teleport it back to where it came from."
Aileana smiled in relief, her disdain for the Va'juc long gone. Even if she didn't know half of the words he spoke, she still understood that they could help the creature and that's all that mattered to her. For a second, the Doctor thought that with her eyes and cheeks red from tears, she looked even more like a faerie from Earth myths, but he didn't dwell on that thought too long.
"Alright," he inhaled sharply before explaining the plan. "Aileana, I need you to muzzle its jaw with your vines, which will also work as a leash if you think of it. Can you produce vines as strong as those ones," he pointed to the Va'juc's legs, "from your hands?"
The redhead nodded her head yes, her vulnerability stored to the back of her mind. The task at hand was too severe for her to get distracted.
"Good. Then we better start walking then, there's less than two hours before the sun sets and those villagers come looking for you," he reminded her and with an anxious gulp, Aileana got to work.
Now that the Va'juc was more trusting of the witch, it turned out to be fairly easy to get it to follow them through the woods and in no time they were approaching the TARDIS.
"What is that?" Aileana wondered. The small blue box contrasting with the green foliage definitely didn't belong there, or in her time, but she was intrigued nonetheless. There was something about it that called out for her, almost like a faint presence in her mind, but she could tell it wasn't spiritual, so what was it?
"That's the TARDIS," the Doctor answered proudly, patting the blue painted wood before unlocking the front door. "It's my home."
"It's rather small," the redhead pointed out.
"Is it?" he bantered in a high pitched voice and disappeared inside, coming out a minute later with all sorts of equipment that were far too advanced for Aileana to recognize.
The two girls observed him as the Doctor placed little grey pyramids around the Va'juc. "What is he doing?" Aileana leaned closer to Rose and whispered her question, not trying to distract the strange man.
"I don't really know, I usually just let him do his thing and then he'll explain," the blonde answered lowly.
"Aileana!" The Doctor called for the woman, interrupting their conversation. She carefully approached him, not sure what he wanted her for. "I need you to get the Va'juc to think about its home planet, its herd, wherever it comes from," he told her.
"And what are those little grey pyramids for?" She asked.
"How can I explain it in terms you'll understand?" The Doctor sighed to himself then perked up. "Those little grey pyramids will pick up on the memories and emotions the Va'juc feels and then, with some help from the TARDIS, we'll be able to send it back home," he beamed at the flawlessness of his plan.
"Okay..." Aileana drawled out. "I don't think I understand everything, but what I do understand is my part in the plan."
"Perfect! Get started with the Va'juc, I'll get what's left of the equipment I need from the TARDIS," he ordered her and disappeared back in the blue box.
The witch didn't need to be told twice and got to work, closing her eyes so she could focus on channeling all of her energy in that part of her brain and her heart to attune to the Va'juc. The Doctor came out of the TARDIS with wires around his neck just in time. "Do your magic, Doctor," Aileana strained through her teeth.
She couldn't see him but she heard and felt the Doctor move around her, making a faint smile appear on her lips. It was nice to not work alone for once but she didn't dwell on the thought too long, she had to remain focused so the Va'juc kept thinking of its home and they could teleport it back.
"All set," the Doctor announced and Aileana opened her eyes, looking over to where he was crouching down next to one of the tiny pyramids with wires linking it to the blue box behind. A quizzical look appeared on her features when she noticed the slab he held in one hand and pressed his index finger to it with the other.
"You can let go now," the alien told her, not noticing her confusion at the technology he was using. "I've got the location right here."
Aileana approached him with intrigue and fascination. "You can do that from that slab of... of..." she trailed off, not having a single idea of the material he was holding.
"Yep!" He popped the 'p' of the word. "Technology from far away in your future and far away from this world," he briefly explained, his eyes never leaving the information rolling down on the screen of his little tablet.
"That's so..." Aileana failed to find a word that compared to how stupendous this was.
"Cool," Rose finished her sentence with a nod of her head.
"Cool?" The redhead quirked up an eyebrow.
"Oh, in the future it means something like 'intensely good'," the Doctor explained when he realised she wouldn't be familiar with 21st century slang.
"Cool it is then," the witch agreed.
"And now if I just do this and that," the Doctor vaguely narrated what he was doing, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. "We can now send the Va'juc back to its home."
As he said those words, the giant alien started vanishing before their eyes. Rose's held a look of satisfaction while Aileana's were wide with fascination and wonderment. This sort of magic was unlike anything she had seen in her 333 years of existence.
"Pretty cool, huh?" The Doctor playfully asked the redhead with a smirk.
"Totally," she answered in a daze.
The Doctor admired Aileana for a few seconds, drinking in the amazement on her face, but quickly remembered what she was and shook his head clear. She was a witch, something that technically shouldn't exist outside of fairtytales, and he couldn't let himself get comfortable with her. "Well!" He clapped his hands, breaking the trance she was in. "It was nice working with you but Rose and I should get going, as should you, what with the mob of townspeople who'll want to burn you on a stake." He fully ignored the frustrated glare Rose was sending him, he wasn't going to let her sway him from his decision and more importantly his beliefs.
"Right, you're right," Aileana said and walked over to Rose and picked up Rab from her arms. "It was nice meeting you, Rose, Doctor," her eyes lingered on the man a few seconds longer before turning around and trekking through the woods.
The two time travellers stared at her retreating form until she disappeared in the shadows of the forest then the Doctor picked up his equipment in a hurry and walked inside his TARDIS with it.
"Doctor!" Rose called after him, following him in the ship. "Doctor, we have to go get Aileana!"
"Oh no, she'll be fine," the alien dismissed over his shoulder as he stored his equipment under the grating.
"Even if she will, don't you think she'd be an amazing addition to the team?"
"No." He stood up, his mood now serious. "She's a witch, and witches aren't real. They only exist in fairytales."
"So you're saying we were both hallucinating?" Rose crossed her arms over her chest.
"No, what I'm saying is I don't want to travel with someone who goes against what I believe in and know to be true," he argued.
"I think it's pretty cool that her existence proves you wrong," the blonde said nonchalantly. "You need to be humbled from time to time."
"I don't need to be humbled from time to time! I'm very humble!" The Doctor cried out, offended.
Rose didn't grace him with a response, she only snorted at his claim and it said everything that needed to be said.
"Alright, I admit my ego does tend to get high sometimes," he shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants, "but we're still not going after her."
"Oh come on Doc!" Rose whined. "She'd be great for the both of us! I need another girl on board who'll understand my human girl problems and needs, and you need someone who can stay with you for longer than your average human companion." She argued. "Plus, I saw how you looked at her earlier. You already know so much about humans, I know you're dying to learn about her and witchcraft even if you're acting like she's the plague."
The Doctor couldn't argue with that, Rose had a point. Even if his brain told him she couldn't possibly be real, every cell in his body was full of intrigue for Aileana. But there was one problem though.
"Even if you were right," which she was, "I couldn't find her. She could be anywhere in the woods and I don't have anything that could trace her," he told his friend.
"How about her cat?" Rose suggested. "My zip up is covered in Rab's hair," and she moved her arms forward to show him.
"I, I guess that could work," he stuttered, now not having any other choice but to find Aileana.
"Great!" Rose cheered in victory.
Meanwhile in the woods, Aileana had gone south and was now standing on the shore of Loch Ness. She needed a moment to take in everything that happened today, from her true nature being found out to helping people from the future. Dusk had gone not so long ago, giving the stage to the moon and the stars, though she couldn't see much of the lake in front of her because of the clouds that floated low that night. But it didn't matter, the sound of the small waves hitting the shore was all she needed to calm her mind. She closed her eyes and petted Rab, who she still held in her arms, and breathed in the familiar scent of the lake. She hoped her next home would be near a body of water.
Her moment of peace didn't last long, the sound of dead twigs breaking under feet interrupting the calmness she found herself in. Aileana turned around, ready to face whoever was sneaking up on her.
"There she is! That's the witch!" She heard someone, the young lady she rescued earlier from the Va'juc, yell while pointing at her, a crowd of angry villagers holding torches and forks behind her.
The redhead's eyes became round like saucers, she hadn't expected the townspeople to be this close on her tail. Trapped between the loch behind her and the mob who was going to send her to her death, she felt utterly powerless. Witches had an everlasting lifespan, yes, but they were not immortal, she had seen it with her own mother.
"Burn the witch!" A man shouted from the crowd, leading the others in a chant as they walked closer and closer to Aileana. She stepped backwards and felt the water submerge her leather shoes and the bottom of her smock. Rab hissed at the villagers from her arms, not pleased to be trapped between water and fire.
The redheaded witch tried to come up with a solution, anything that would get her out of this mess and she could continue on with her life in the middle of some forest, hidden from everyone, but it felt like all hope was lost. Aileana kept walking backwards in the lake, the water now rising all the way up to her waist as she held her bag above the water while Rab stood on her shoulders.
Then suddenly, she felt ripples hit her back, as if something was blowing on the water but there wasn't any wind that night. Not long after, a whooshing sound could be heard by everyone and seemed to frighten the villagers enough because they all looked at something behind the woman in fright, hurrying to get out of the water and away as fast as possible.
Confused, Aileana turned around to end up face to face with the blue box from earlier slowly materializing in front of her eyes just above the surface of the water. A few seconds later, one of its doors was opened, the Doctor and Rose's heads peaking out.
"Where is she? I don't see her..." Rose said defeatedly.
"That's strange," the Doctor frowned. "Usually the TARDIS doesn't mess up with that stuff." He took a look around and noticed the retreating light of the townspeople's torches. "Look, that's the villagers over there," he pointed in their direction. "I guess we're too late," he sniffed and was about to get back inside when a cough caused both time travellers to look down at their feet.
"Hi," Aileana said, teeth shattering due to the cold water submerging half of her body.
"What are you doing down there?" The Doctor asked her, confused.
"The villagers found me so I thought 'how about a quick swim with my cat and my bag full of books and parchments at night in the middle of the month of October'," she sarcastically quipped, annoyed, before giving her real answer. "They had me cornered! I unconsciously started backing in the water, it was that or the fire. Now can you please help me?"
Rose didn't hesitate to bend down, first picking up Rab from her shoulders and putting him on the floor of the TARDIS, then her bag. Once the witch's hands were freed, the Doctor offered her his and helped her pull herself inside his time machine. Aileana rolled on her back, panting and taking in deep breaths as she recovered from being so close to her death.
"Thank you," the redhead smiled up to her two saviours who hovered over her.
Rose grinned back. "We couldn't just abandon you like that."
"Well I didn't really mind," the Doctor noted, tugging at his ear, but Rose jabbed her elbow in his ribs to shut him up.
"You're being rude," the blonde reprimanded him.
Aileana ignored the two, sitting up and taking a look at the space around her. "There's no way we're inside that blue tiny box," she said, eyes wide with wonder as she stared at the anemone-like beams.
"Yet we are," the Doctor told her smugly, rocking back and forth on his feet.
"No!" The woman exclaimed in disbelief, standing up. The Doctor offered his hand in help and she took it, only to be dragged in a run behind him to the console once she was on her feet.
"Yes!" The alien said, the curiosity in her eyes spurring him on and making him forget about the initial resentment he had for her.
"How is it possible? How can this fit in such a tiny box?" She asked him as the Doctor started pushing buttons and pulling levers.
"Even I don't understand it," Rose told her from beside her.
"Sometimes some things are better left unexplained, don't wanna ruin the magic," the Doctor glanced to the two girls briefly and winked at Aileana before refocusing on what he was doing. "Now hold onto something because it's about to get bumpy," he warned and not a second later, the TARDIS started rattling and swaying around.
Rab, who had perched himself on the jumpseat in the meantime, was holding on the cushion with his claws for dear life, his body almost parallel to the floor. Aileana had stumbled down on the grating right when the Doctor sent the TARDIS into flight and was laughing at the absurdity of it all. "What is going on?" She shouted through her giggles.
"We're traveling through time and space!" The Doctor cheekily replied, the smugness in his voice was hard to miss.
The TARDIS came to an abrupt stop and as Aileana propped herself to stand up, a manly hand appeared in front of her face once again. She took it and the Doctor helped her rise up on her feet before turning the woman around and lightly push on her shoulders in the direction of the doors.
"Now, when you say time and space, do you really mean–" She started rambling but didn't finish her question, too flabbergasted by the sight in front of her eyes after the Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS.
"Yes, I really mean time and space," the alien replied softly from behind her, his head hovering above her shoulder. Rose observed the two from the console with a smile, not wanting to interrupt Aileana's first real encounter with the magic of the TARDIS. "We're staring at the Orion Nebula," the Doctor explained, "just south of Orion's Belt."
"This is..." Aileana searched for a word to describe the beauty in front of her, but nothing came close to the wonderment coursing through her body. The Doctor couldn't have tried to mask the smile he had from watching her, his stare glued on her face, drinking in her amazement. The redhead didn't even notice him, the mixture of orange, pink, purple and dark colours capturing all of her attention. Her left hand reached out in front of her, as if trying to touch the nebula, and without noticing she was taking a step out of the TARDIS in hopes of getting closer. She would've fallen down in space if it wasn't for the Doctor and his reflexes.
"Woah there!" He exclaimed, arms tight around her waist and drawing her back in his ship. "It's like a museum, you can watch but you can't touch."
"What's a museum?" Aileana turned to him, confusion written all over her face.
"Oh, that's right, they only became common in the 19th century," the Doctor reminded himself under his breath. "It's a place where works of art and old relics are displayed for everyone to see."
"That sounds tremendous, can we go see one?" The redhead eagerly asked.
"Oh, we can go see more than one," the Doctor excitedly told her. "But first, you should change clothes, don't want you getting sick before your first trip on the TARDIS," he motioned to her smock that had frozen solid with the cold coming from space. "Rose will show you to your room and help you settle, then you two might wanna catch some sleep before we go adventuring."
"Sounds like a plan," Rose appeared next to Aileana, linking her arm with hers. "Oh, I'm so glad to finally have another girl on board, this one can get so frustrating sometimes," the blonde said as she dragged her newfound friend in the direction of the hallway that led further into the TARDIS, Rab following right behind.
A small smile formed on the Doctor's lips as he observed the two women, hands deep in the pockets of his trousers. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued and excited to learn more about the witch, even if it went against his longest held belief.