A/N :

I : Hi, It's us again! We're not quite sure where this story came from, somewhere from the back of my brain.

S : We would like to remind you however that the Doctor and Rose do not belong to us (sadly).

I : Actually, they do. I hijacked the TARDIS and they're stuck living in our basement.

S : Isabel, we don't even HAVE a basement. So no, they are not living in our basement, and no, they do not belong to us. They are not characters of our own creation. However, you can still read this story, so continue. Don't read our babble any longer.

Beautiful blue trees waved on the hillside of the planet Canisellus. The planet was known for its forests and mountains. To the north, gentle hills became steep and miles off mountain range stretched high into the periwinkle sky, the normally light blue grass becoming darker the higher the altitude. Sparkling snow glistened at their peaks. To the south, down a hill, a plain of the same grass stretched out as far as the eye could see. To the west was a forest, sparse trees with deep red trunks and navy leaves became closer together the further they went. Suddenly a whooshing, groaning noise faded into existence and a blue police phone box appeared atop a small hill. A tall, thin man in a brown pinstriped suit stepped out of the box, talking animatedly to a short blonde girl in a purple t-shirt and jeans who looked around the planet in amazement, barely hearing a word he said.

"... and then they tried to throw me into a volcano, volcanos are rubbish don't you think so Rose; but I escaped, well obviously or I wouldn't be talking to you would I?"

Rose stopped taking in the surrounding countryside and looked up at the Doctor, her face scrunched up in concentration.

"They wanted to throw you into a volcano?"

"Yes a volcano Rose, volcano. With lava and all that fun stuff."

She laughed "Ok hold on, they tried to throw you, the Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, into a volcano."

"Yes" he answered seriously.

"Why the 'ell would they do that?" Rose asked him.

"It's a long story" he replied.

"Aw come on, at least tell me why they would want to throw you into a volcano, although, knowing you, I'm not surprised."

"I don't always get myself into trouble Rose, only sometimes."

"Most of the time" she whispered under her breath.

"I heard that" he said.

"How?!" she asked surprised.

"Super Gallifreyan hearing abilities." he replied very seriously, "And for your information the reason they were attempting to throw me in a volcano was because they thought I would 'appease the gods' or something."

Rose snorted at that and almost fell over from laughter. He caught her and helped her regain her balance.

"What, you don't think I would appease the gods?" he said.

"No... it's just..." she choked out between fits of laughter. "Don't you think you'd be a bit stringy?" she added with a serious expression. It was the Doctor's turn to laugh now.

"I don't think I'd taste that bad. Anyways, I like to think I deprived them of a complete Christmas dinner."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that."

"You know, instead of arguing about whether or not I'd taste good, we should probably explore a bit, don't you think?"

"Yes. But you would be stringy." she added under her breath.

"Well then, Allons-y!" he said, ignoring what she'd said, and grabbed her hand pulling her down the hill. They ran towards the bottom full pelt when suddenly Rose tripped and fell, pulling the Doctor down with her. He fell too and they rolled head over heels together down the hill. They finally stopped at the bottom, laughing so hard they couldn't stand up. The Doctor finally managed it and upon standing held out his hand to Rose.

"Okay?" he asked.

"Yep, never better." she replied, smiling, and grabbed his hand to help herself up.

She flattened down her hair and straightened out her shirt. The Doctor looked around at their surroundings. They were in a clearing of light blue grass surrounded by trees with deep red trunks and navy blue leaves.

"It's beautiful!" Rose exclaimed, looking around.

"Just like you." The Doctor muttered under his breath.

"What did you just say?" she said, whipping her head around to look at him. Her face starting to turn the color of the tree trunks.

"Nothing." he replied.

"I definitely heard something." she said.

"Nope I didn't say a thing."

She watched him carefully.

"Well if you don't want to admit that you just compared me to a red and blue tree we'll be on our way." She said heading for the forest.

The Doctor looked after her his jaw dropping. How had she heard him?

He walked though the forest, Rose in front of him. They wandered for about five minutes until Rose decided that she wanted to climb one of the trees to get a good view of the forest around them. The Doctor had a bad feeling about it but helped her up anyway. She climbed up through the branches and disappeared from sight. After only a couple seconds the Doctor became worried.

"Rose..." he called up, "are you alright up there?"

Her head poked out of the leaves, "I'm fine, stop worrying so much, it's not like I'm gonna get lost."

The Doctor stood at the bottom of the tree, twiddling his thumbs and waiting for Rose to come back down. He looked around and noticed the trees were a lot closer together here than he had realized. It was making him even more nervous.

"Rose..." he called again, "I think you should come back down."

"Why?" he heard her shout from above, "I can see the whole forest from here and something that looks kinda like a pyramid."

"I really think you should come down." he repeated nervously.

"Fine, I'm coming." she told him and started to climb down.

I had only been half a minute when the Doctor shouted again, "Rose, are you coming?"

Her head popped through the lower branches, "I'm almost there, be patient. What are you so worried about anyway?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this forest." he replied.

Seconds later Rose hit the ground with a soft thud and upon seeing the Doctor's nervous expression she held his hand comfortingly.

"Doctor," she said soothingly, "We'll be fine, there's nothing to worry about..." she stopped talking abruptly, looking at one of the trees behind the Doctor. Her eyes were wide and she had a look of fear upon her face.

"What is it?" the Doctor asked, turning around quickly and grasping her hand tight.

"Look." she whispered, pointing up.

He raised his head and squinted to see what she was pointing at. Amongst the blue leaves a pair of golden cat-like eyes was staring straight back at him. He stood very still and squeezed Rose's hand.

"What is it?" she whispered to him.

"I don't know, but stay very, very still. I don't like the way it's looking at us and by the appearance of it's eyes I'd say it was an intelligent predator." he whispered back.

"Oh." she said.

It continued to look at them and the Doctor swore he could make out a leopard-like tail swinging back and forth in the branches. Suddenly the eyes blinked and were gone.

In seconds there was a hiss behind them. Rose yelped in alarm as a strong tail swiped her off her feet. She hit the ground hard, letting out a small whimper as her breath was knocked away. The sound of a second body hitting the ground alerted her that the Doctor had been hit too. Golden cat-like eyes filled the space above where Rose was laying on the forest floor. A voice like nails on a chalkboard filled the silence.

"Who are you, and why are you here?"

Rose could feel it's hot breath on her neck and she shivered. She tried to move but the hot breath was abruptly replaced by something sharp and cold, she immediately ceased her movements and even her breath got shallow, she tried not to swallow.

"I'm John, John Smith and this is... Ella Brooklyn, my, er, my traveling companion. We were just exploring, we mean no harm." the Doctor lied.

"This is sacred land trespasser. You have no right to be here. You will come with me."

Rose stood up, the knife still to her neck, and looked at her captor. The woman looked human enough, her deep brown skin was smooth and covered in tribal paint. Her hair was black and wiry and she wore a knee length fur dress. The smooth fur was deep red to blend in with the surroundings Rose supposed. The interesting bit was the fact that the woman had leopard legs, her feet were clawed and shoeless. Her tail whipped around angrily behind her, her mouth curved into a scowl.

The Doctor stood up and moved to Rose but the woman snarled at him, baring sharp yellowing teeth and pressed the knife further towards Rose's neck.

"Move again male and I will kill your female, shame, she has a strong heart."

"She's not mine, she's just my friend." he retorted quietly but moved no further towards them.

"Come." the woman said and Rose began to walk through the forest. The Doctor followed warily after them, not wanting to let Rose out of his sight. He was genuinely worried about her, what if she got hurt? He would never be able to live with himself if she was killed. He wished they'd never come to this planet.