Within Earshot

Theta turned a bright pink, unable to really do anything but stutter as he glanced down at their still intertwined hands. He was glad when the Timelady changed the subject.

"P-probably the extent of the plants that g-grow would be the trees, or m-maybe some large ferns or flowers. Well, m-maybe not flowers. To have flowers you would need something to pollinate them, and I haven't seen or heard any bugs" he shrugged, starting to feel slightly less awkward "But I doubt anything bigger than us would be able to survive...well, anything that's root-less.

Sonya nodded quietly in thought for a moment before glancing sideways at Thet with a small frown. "That thing that tried to kill us wasn't root-based. It was an actual animal living here, like a wolf with more feet." She said quietly, the memory of what she saw flashing in her mind at the moment, causing a small shudder to work through her. "It was born to kill, I don't know what those things eat, but I doubt sharp teeth like that it lives off of plants." Shaking her head again, she forced the memory into the back of her mind and focused on the path again. "But I will say this, if that thing can survive here without a sun, then other creatures have to survive as well. Something not as violent I hope anyway, there can't be just one creature on this rock that is gentle." Turning her head, she studied the surrounding trees with a small frown, trying to see into the dark as they passed an opening in the branches.

Robin frowned at the thought of more scary creatures living here. Friendly ones would be great - but she doubted a lot of the life on this creepy planet was friendly. She slowed down a bit - not wanting to be in the front anymore. Definitely not around here. "Is there anything else we have for light?" She turned to ask Sonya, the darkness starting to get to her. Tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear, she looked in front of her again, listening for anything besides the others.

"Erm...we have the penlights. And my sonic screwdriver. And..." Thet dug through his pockets with his free hand, searching for anything. Hm. A piece of string, a large rock, a pear or two, his sonic, a pen, a half eaten bacon strip, among other things. But one thing was for certain; there were no torches or other things that could make light in his pocket...well, aside from a cell phone, but that ran out of batteries anyways.

"I've got nothing" he shrugged and looked to Sonya "any torches on hand?"

Sonya pulled out a couple of penlights and held them out to Thet and Robin with an apologetic smile on her face. "I wasn't expecting to show up on a planet without sun. In fact, I was prepared for one with three suns..." She added with a grumble when her other hand found the sunglasses she had tucked away and let out a light sigh before she snapped her fingers and pulled the glasses out anyway. "But I do know what I can do..." Sonya said with excitement, her Sonic already in her other hand as she fumbled with the settings for a moment then buzzed the sunglasses quickly. Tucking her sonic away again, she slipped the glasses on and grinned at what she saw. "Night vision. Love it, everything is so... Green. Even your hair, Thet." She giggled lightly before pulling them off and holding them out to him with the same grin on her face. "Much better than a small penlight anyway. You use those and tell us if there's anything on the path ahead of us, Robin and I will use the penlights so we don't trip over anything."

Robin nodded as she took the penlight. She shined it on the ground, smiling at the bit of light in the darkness. "That's a little better, at least no one will have to trip over anymore roots," she joked. She shined the penlight on a tree nearby, and a little on the ones in front of them. Is it just me or do those look like the sort of trees that would appear in an evil forest? Nah, it's just my mind being paranoid... Frowning in her mind, she aimed the light back at the ground and took a glance over at Theta and giggled. "I bet you'll look great in women's sunglasses, Theta."

Theta took the sunglasses that were offered and put them on, looking around. Sonya was right; everything now had a green tint to it, and was much more visible. He spared a glance to Robin.

"shuddup" he grinned impishly, a playful glint to his eyes, which were now hidden by the shades "you're just sad that you don't look as cool with sunglasses"

Theta looked forward, back to the path in front of them, seeing that it went straight for a while, then took a sharp right turn. He pointed forwards (though the girls probably couldn't see that anyways) and began to walk, his footfalls fairly silent on the grass and dirt path.

"Onwards!"

Sonya let out a slight laugh as she glanced at Thet in the glasses before she clixked her own penlight on and started walking again. Shining her light upwards, she studied the canopy above with interest, the leaves were large, much larger than the ones that grew on trees back at Earth. The smallest leaf was at least the size of her hand, if not bigger while the largest she could see were easily the same size as her torso. Suddenly a thought of somethin, causing her body to freeze with excitement. They were big and flexible enough to make rough clothing out of. She turned to Thet and Robin in excitement, her penlight flashing over their forms. "I have reason to believe that there might be humanoid people here. Those lights, they have to give off more than sunlight judging from what I saw earlier. They have to give off the needed nutrients for other creatures to survive. They just have to." turning back to face the path, she began walking faster, eager to find another glen and hopefully other creatures.

Robin looked over at Sonya to see her almost jogging down the path. "Well someone's excited." She giggled and hurried after her, pointing her light at Sonya instead of the ground. "Come on Theta! If you're not up here helping, she's sure to run straight into a tree." This was much more fun - rushing through the canopy. It helped relieve the dark feeling the forest was giving off since you couldn't focus on it as much. She nearly ran into a tree once they made it to the turn though, pulling her focus back onto the path.

Theta laughed, jogging to catch up with Sonya and Robin. He rolled his eyes at her comment.

"Relax, there aren't any trees on the path. Yet. Hold on, there's a corner up here, lemme check how far it goes on"

Theta ran past the two, skidding around the corner with a laugh, sliding on the dirt that was there as if he were sliding on ice. Hm, he wondered if this planet even had ice, or if it was a tropical forest all around.

Sonya raced up to Thet, clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh and took off past him, not caring to see if they kept up with her. Instantly the playful side of her nature coming out with the small race they were inadvertently holding as they ran through the dark. It was almost like 'Shadow Chase' she used to play as a child, hide and go seek in the dark, with her friends. Letting out another laugh, she stopped at a fork and glanced between the two of them, trying to decide what one would be best to go through before spinning around and pointing her light towards Thet and Robin with a playful smile. "I'd say let's split up, but you know... We don't really have anything to keep ourselves out of trouble." She called cheerfully, bouncing on her feet as she spoke, her hands swinging at her sides as she waited for them to catch up. "And not to mention... I don't really care to be separated at this point, racing is much more fun." She added with a wink over at Thet before turning back around and darting down the left path, her light bouncing on the ground in front of her.

Robin couldn't help but grin as she sprinted, barely able to keep up with the others, let alone beat them. This was fun anyway, though. When it turned into a race she had no idea, but she was glad it did. Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, she squinted through the dark so she wouldn't have to use her penlight. She willed her legs to move faster, so she might have a chance of beating Sonya - like that would happen. Does this girl run on thrill? Laughing at the thought, she tried to go even faster. Obviously that wasn't working since Theta just passed her. "Hey wait up!" She called down to them, knowing they wouldn't listen anyway. Her throat was burning now and she began to hate the fact that running involved breathing.

Theta laughed, sprinting after Sonya, tweed coat billowing out behind him, his hearts beating energy and sparking his usual hyper-ness. This was actually kind of fun, aside from the light creature dying and everything. Just him, Robin, and Sonya, running around like a bunch of idiots in an alien forest. Sounded about usual, aside from the fact they weren't actually running from anything.

Sonya turned her head to look back at the others, her eyes shining with excitement just before a root she didn't notice in the path caught on her foot, sending her flying into the dirt face down. "Ow.." She mumbled, refusing to move as her face and hands throbbed with pain. Grimacing slightly, she forced herself to sit up and pick the penlight up to shine on her hands to see the damage. "Right, no more running while looking back anymore." Sonya murmured to herself, experimentally opening and closing the hand to be sure it still worked. Looking over her shoulder, she cast a withering glare at the offending root behind her, as if her glare alone could make it shrivel up and die.

Robin skidded to a halt, trying to stop before the ran into Sonya. Her smile faded as she crouched down next to her. "You okay?" She looked down at her hands, glad they didn't take too much of a beating. "I was wrong - even with the penlights, someone trips over a root." She tried to joke with her and see if that would cheer her up. She tried really hard not to breathe heavily in her face, so she stood up, because not breathing wasn't an option. Well... no, dying wasn't an option either. Robin was actually a little glad for the break - but not for Sonya falling. She contemplated offering her a hand to get up, but that would probably sting. "I think you still won the race," she smiled at her.

Theta laughed, taking a few deep breaths and reaching down to help Sonya up.

"No fair...you had a head start" he laughed again, his eyes behind the night vision sunglasses looking around for something else interesting in the forest.

"Anyways, you said you think there might be other kinds of creatures here?"

"Ye- Ow, Yeah." Sonya replied with a wince when her face throbbed. Reaching up, she gingerly touched it and hissed slightly in frustration. Her nose was broken and probably had swollen up to twice it's size by now, not to mention the dirt and cuts on her face adding to the pain. "I hope anyway, it's an educated guess if anything." She added as an afterthought while gently poking her nose with another wince. Closing her eyes, she gently laid her fingers on it and summoned some of her energy to heal it. A bright, golden light flowed between her fingers for a few moments, then sank into the skin on her face, leaving no traces of the wounds there. "Honestly I'm looking for a settlement or living space, something that identifies a race here that is like us in a manner of speaking." Turning her penlight back to the path, she shone it at the small exit she had noticed just before her face met with the ground in a rough hello. "I was heading for that."

Robin was still staring at Sonya's nose. But... how... She decided to let it go - knowing for a fact that almost anything was genetically possible. She shifted her gaze to where the penlight was shining. "Well come on then, let's go see what's in there." Looking back at the other two, she grinned a bit. "Theta should probably take a look first, though - since he has the night vision glasses." She looked up at Theta's face, suppressing a giggle - he really shouldn't wear women's sunglasses. Switching on her own penlight again, she pointed it at the exit - excited to go inside, but scared to think what might be there.

Theta grinned, turning to face the entrance.

"You just don't want to go in cause you're scared. But all right"

He neared the entrance, observing it, trying to commit it to memory. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through into the unknown, not sure of what was waiting for him on the other side.

Sonya looked over at Robin with a smile on her face. "Come on then, chicken. Let's go." She teased gently before ducking into the small entrance and straightening back up, only to have a spear pointed at her neck. Raising her hands slowly in the air, she studied the humanoids standing in a circle around herself and Thet, all wearing, what she had correctly guessed earlier, the leaves from trees as rough pants and shirts. And every one of their faces had a hard expression on them as they stared at both of the Time Lords. Looking over at Thet, Sonya cautioned him with a mental stop sign to stop him from talking before returning her attention back to the people gathered. "We won't hurt you, we're explorers. We've been looking for shelter." She said slowly and clearly to them, watching as surprise registered on their faces while glancing at each other.

Robin frowned, hearing the oh-so-common phrase 'We won't hurt you'. That couldn't be good. She walked up to the entrance slowly, peeking her head in to see Sonya and Theta backed up at spearpoint. Definitely not good. She strained to look at the people inside - maybe not so primitive if they've made clothes from the leaves. At least they're smart enough to do that. And then the look of surprise - surprised we could speak English? Speak at all? Or just having no idea what's going on? She frowned a bit, part of her wanting to drag them both back out of there, the other part wanting to go inside and get a better look. Neither were an option right now. Robin tried her best to make as little noise as possible as she tried to see around the two in front of her.

When Theta stepped through the entrance, he was immediately greeted with tons of spears, aimed for his throat. He froze, bringing his hands up above his head in the universal sign of 'I surrender'. His eyes darted between the natives, all dressed in large leaves.

"Er..."

That's when Sonya had come in. Throughout the whole ordeal, he attempted to keep silent, though he was kind of irritated at the Timelady. He was 60 now; much older than the Thet she knew. He had learned how to keep his mouth shut, or at least how to negotiate.

...well, judging on last week, when he'd nearly been killed by the armies of France after insulting their king...maybe it was best that he shut up and let Sonya do the talking.

Sonya slowly lowered her hands and took a small step forward only to be stopped by a spear being pressed to her throat once more. "Alright, no moving. I can do that." She said in the same level voice, her hands once more rising up to her shoulders. "You understand me, yeah? Take us to where you live." She said with a slight smile on her face as one of the people stepped forward, the shadows in the forest making it hard to see any details as he studied her. "Come."

Glancing over her shoulder, she motioned for Thet to follow her, briefly catching sight of Robin hiding in the bush. Falling back behind some of the guards, she mouthed the words 'Don't let them see you.' over her shoulder at the young girl then turned back around and followed their captors deeper into the forest.

Don't let them see you. Robin almost sighed - where's the fun in that? She backed up out of the bush a bit, wondering what to do. She couldn't let them just take her friends like that - even if she had just met them and they might barely count as such. On the other hand, if she barged in there like an idiot, there wouldn't be anyone to get them out of there if they got into trouble... So she sat on the ground and frowned, doing as she was told. It took about 3 seconds before she got bored and looked in through the bush again - waiting for them to either come out or need her to come in.

Theta was led along with Sonya down the path, following the natives. He wanted to glace back at Robin to see what she was doing, but he knew that if he did the natives might wonder what was back there and discover her. At least she had been able to hide in time; it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, he thought, as he eyed the sharp, pointy spears.