There was a forest. Not just any kind of forest either; it was very big, very green and, more importantly, it was a rainforest - and at this point in time, it was fully living up to all expectations, and raining.
As the forest’s rivers began to swell, and the soft, moist earth that covered the ground became sodden, the TARDIS landed. Well… if you can call a large, blue police box screaming towards the treetops with smoke billowing from it a landing…Which you can’t… Not without putting the word ‘crash’ in front of it.
There was a distinctive flash that lit the sky as the ship shot through the planets ozone layer. This was shortly followed by a long drawn out whining noise and the TARDIS plummeting through the sky, leaving a tail of scorched fire. It hit the top most canopies of trees, plunged through the branches with a horrible cracking sound, and jolted to an unexpected stop several feet above the ground.
Deep inside, the console room was little more than rubble. Deep underneath the rubble, the darkness stretched away in an almost silent void… a deep, forgotten emptiness that devoured the light and sucked away the sound.
He felt it in the recesses of his consciousness… a rhythmic, pulsating sense, almost as if It were taking deep shuddering breaths… twitching spasmodically… Then suddenly, there was a release, although there had been no inclination of any kind of previous build up. The force jolted forward…painfully, angrily and with such power, that it was gone in an instant.
If anyone had been watching this crash, they would have said something like, ‘wow.’ They would have shaken their head at the sound of the snapping trees, and blinked in surprise at the faint explosion of light as the vessel crashed.
They would have been deeply impressed at the amount of smoke that billowed upwards and the occasional flashes of light from snapped cables… They would have watched in a confused wonder as a giant golden ball erupted from the smoking wreckage and cannoned away into the forests depths… and, after being suitably amazed and impressed, they would have rushed over to the crash to search for survivors.
Unfortunately, the only witness was a small koala-like creature with unusually large ears and a permanently bewildered expression.
The blue box hung from the tree, supported by two thick branches, with its doors facing vertically downwards. The smoke that poured off it snaked its way through the branches, gently caressing the wet leaves as it slithered past, and curling up into the rain spattered air above.
The rain pointedly ignored it and continued its journey downwards. Inside the overturned TARDIS, there was a brief flicker; a small, almost unnoticeable, spasm of light in the otherwise bottomless blackness. It wasn't bright enough to illuminate anything, but merely provided the vague impression of some sort of room.... if you could call what was left a room; it looked more like a scrapheap.
He tried to move and let out a small gasp of pain… it felt like… in his bewildered state he attempted to analyze himself… it felt like pain.
For a brief moment, he considered weather he should not bother... just stay smothered underneath the wreckage, give up. The Doctor sighed and let his head flop against the blackened remains of an unidentifiable lump of TARDIS.
After only a few minutes, he opened his eyes again and frowned.
Outside the TARDIS, the koala-like creature crawled along an outstretched branch and purred at the strange blue box. It had never met something like this and, like all of its kind; it aimed to welcome the ship to it’s planet through the ancient art of bum sniffing. However, before it was able to do this, the TARDIS doors slammed open with a thud and the Doctor fell out. He landed heavily; face down, onto the muddy ground and was promptly followed by a light shower of random lumps of metal.
There was a long, drawn out pause.
The koala-creature clambered slowly down the trunk of the tree and took a tentative sniff at the body.
In a muffled voice, it said; ‘Ouch,’ and very slowly rolled over.
The Doctor opened his eyes and looked up at a large, fluffy, and bewildered looking face.
‘Ah,’ he said and furrowed his brow.
His left arm hurt, and his shoulder, and his head. He blinked as the rain stung his face. There wasn’t much of him that didn’t hurt when he thought about it long enough.
He tried not to think about it.
The koala-creature sniffed him again and began to lick his ear.
Very slowly, the Doctor sat up and looked dazedly around. He tried to pull himself to his feet, but let out a secondary gasp and collapsed back onto the floor. A slow, pain-numbed thought came to his head.
It was really wet.
He stared blearily upwards. Ah, that would be because it was raining.
Another, much more urgent realization arrived, causing him to sit up sharply and wince.
There was the release, but there had been no inclination of any kind of build up. The force, the energy, had jolted forward…painfully and angrily and with such power, that it was gone in an instant…
‘No… No, no, no, no.’
The koala-creature made a quiet clicking noise.
‘It’s gone,’ he said blankly, ‘just gone.’ He let out a short laugh, more out of shock than anything funny. That’s what was missing; he’d never realized it before. How much a part of him it had become…
His gaze landed on the bundle of clicking fluff.
‘Ha,’ he said, now with no hint of amusement.
The TARDIS was gone.
Not dead, not like when it fell out of the void. Then it had died, if only temporarily. Oh, it had still been there, but was just dead. Like a corpse. Now… he glanced up at the shell of the ship and winced. Now it was just... gone.
The koala-creature approached him again and head butted his arm. Probably in what it thought as an affectionate way, since the welcoming butt-sniff had failed. The Doctor flinched, and recoiled.
‘Ouch,’ he murmured again. 'I forgot how much hurting hurt.' He frowned as he tried to understand what he had just said, and then his thoughts returned to the empty husk of his ship.
Very slowly, his head turned upwards again to stare morosely into the belly of the TARDIS. It was completely black, completely gone, completely empty and full of noth – there was another brief flicker of light.
The Doctor hearts suddenly leaped as he squinted at it. There was something, one small something, left! And what ever it was, it was the last living part of his ship. The only thing that remained of her…
It was a type C sensor crystal.
It blinked at him in a happy, mauve way.
Then the branch snapped.
And the TARDIS fell on him.
