#mrscatherinetate

Along tiring day lay ahead of her. It hadn’t been long before Donna left herhome on the reef when she spied the form of her grandfather swimming towardsher. Wilf, Poseidon of the Seventh Sea did not look happy to see hisgranddaughter getting ready to leave. His presence usually made her feel better,but this did not look like it was going to be one of those times. Instead, his expressionwas thunderous as he bore down upon her. Uh oh! She was going to get a talk. Again.This was becoming a habit now, and she dreaded what was about to come.

“Donna,what are you doing?” he demanded to know.

“Preparingto collect some oysters for you, Gramps,” she stated as calmly as she could. “Ihope I will collect enough.”

“I’msure you will,” he agreed, softening his tone. This was his favourite granddaughter,after all, and it was hard for him to stay mad with her for long. “But that isn’tmy worry.”

“Oh?”she queried, placing the last oyster onto a platter for him. “What are youworried about?”

“You,Sweetheart,” he admitted. “I don’t like you being on your own.”

“ButI’m not on my own,” she argued. “I’ve got you.”

“That’snot what I mean,” he retorted, suspecting that she was deliberatelymisunderstanding his words. “Why can’t you be more like your sister Amy, getyourself a nice merboy like Rory. Or Clara with Danny,” he added. “You shouldhave someone.”

“Idon’t want or need a merboy,” she defended herself, “let alone a merman, as mypartner in life,”

“Whynot?” Wilf queried. “When I think of my Melanie, your poor old mum, bringingyou back to us when she had finally returned home to the people of the Arielcoral reef… before she died. I was determined that you would want for nothing,always having the best.” He smiled as he surrounded himself in memories. “ThenSylvia the sea witch took you under her tentacle, taught you right from wrong,got you ready to marry a merman and take your rightful place as my successor asleader of our merpeople.”

“I’mvery grateful, but I don’t want to replace you, Gramps,” she assured him. “Andalthough I would love to get married one day, I don’t know any merman who couldfit the bill. You’re my number one.”

“Asit should be,” he agreed, pleased with her answer for a moment. “But you needto go find yourself a merman for a husband. You can’t just float about,expecting him to be swept in by the current,” he chided. “Sometimes I think youare just drifting, Sweetheart.”

“Ipromise I’ll look. Eventually,” she vowed, and kissed his cheek.

-o0o-

Itwasn’t often that Donna entered the shallower waters near the river outlet. Notthat the fresh water bothered her too much, although it did make her tail zing.No, the reason why she had ventured there, and closer to the humans, was thatshe had been assigned the task of collecting something different for dinnerthat evening when they celebrated the 80th anniversary of the emergence ofWilf, Poseidon of the Seventh Sea; otherwise known as her grandfather. So shewanted to give him something special that had only just come into season: freshoysters. The best ones came from the area known as Tardis Bay, so he was worththe added effort of going that distance and into potential danger.

Thedanger came from the fishing nets that the humans used to scoop up the wildlifeof the sea. They didn’t care about species, colour or creed; they just tookeverything and tossed back whatever they didn’t want to eat. But only after itwas dead. Nobody was safe who ventured near. The death of her own mother hadoften been held up by her grandfather as a cautionary tale of such foolhardyexplorations. 

Itwas as she passed a particular rock known as Widow’s Peak that marked theboundary from the deeper waters she normally kept to, she spotted what shethought was a seal in trouble. Rushing to aid the poor creature, she was shockedto find a human lying on a large leaf-shaped vessel. Hearing a splash, she roseup to peer at him in concern, and heard the human murmured, “Help me.”

Donnaimmediately slid back into the water in shock. The human had made a sound andshe had understood him! How had that happened? And would he be able tounderstand her in return? There was only one way to find out, so she took adeep breath, placed her hands on the edge of his flimsy transport and hauledherself up out of the water. “What do you want me to do?”

Hiseyes fluttered open for some seconds, and his right hand was raised in a feebleeffort to point. “Get me to the shore, please,” he quietly begged.

Shegazed towards the distant shoreline, calculating the distance and how long itwould take her to swim it normally and with him in tow. It wouldn’t take toolong out of her day, she decided. So she slung her bag of oysters onto ajutting out piece of Widow’s Peak, making sure it would not fall back into thewater and disappear without a trace, and then turned her attention back to thealien.

Itwas a bit hard to judge such a soggy mess, but her first impression of himwasn’t too bad. She would be able to examine him properly once she had him outof the waves, on the edge of the surf. All the way there he didn’t do muchbeyond the odd grunt or groan. Shame. She had loads of questions to ask him.

Thesun shone down in beautiful waves as she finally reached the shallow depths ofthe beach, and it took some effort to shove the mini boat thing the human waslying on, up onto the firmer sand of the beach. In the end she had wriggledonto the sand and dragged him bodily out of the water as far as she could go.It was enough, fortunately; and she could finally look at him in comfort.

Shestayed half submerged within the waves, just in case the human suddenly turnedvicious. Who knew how violent he could become? The risk wasn’t worth takingaccording to the stories told by her grandfather.

Asshe caught her breath she also rested against a boulder, one of many smallrocks dotted along the shoreline, where shingle hadn’t yet become fine sand. Thehuman lay on his back, his feet lapped by the waves, but his head now had achance to dry.

Reachingout a hand, she swept his hair out of his eyes and considered his features.Ooh, he was pretty, she decided, for a human. The colour of his eyes earlier,when he had momentarily opened them, had been very different from hers. Hereyes were blue with an inner ring of amber, whereas his were brown. A sort ofgolden brown, she noted as the sun beat down on him and his eyelids lifted tosee who his rescuer was.

Heblinked several times before squinting. It was too bright at first to make outwho his rescuer was, but then they leaned forward, casting a shadow over hisface, and he was able to see more clearly. His saviour was a woman. A woman similarin age to him; with pale skin, beautiful ginger hair and lovely kind features.And she was smiling at him in encouragement. That was nice.

“Yousaved my life,” he rasped. “Thank you.”

“Idid,” she agreed, beaming with joy that she had succeeded. “You can talk!Don’t you think that is wonderful?”

Puzzled,he frowned at her. “Of course I can talk. Why did you…? Anyway, where was I?”

Shegrinned. “I found you on that log.”

Log?What log? He managed to turn his head and spotted his surfboard lying withinthe breaking waves. Stifling a laugh, he informed her, “It’s a surfboard. I wasout surfing when I must have had an accident.”

“Surfboard,”she carefully enunciated as though she had never said the word before, letalone seen one. “Your one person vessel. Yes?”

“Well,you could say that, I suppose,” he allowed, now amused for different reasonsthat included relief at being actually alive when he’d thought his number wasup. “What do you call it?”

Herexpression went thoughtful. “‘Tiny boat’, when we do,” she admitted, but didn’treveal how stupid they thought they were.

“Ineed to thank you for saving me out there,” he informed, wincing as he tried tolift his head. “I am Prince John Eric, of Tardis, but my friends call me theDoctor.” He then added, “That includes you now, if you want. Well, it will onceI know who you are.”

“Iam Donna of Ariel,” she supplied; still amazed she was able to talk with thisstrange being. All in all she was fascinated by him.

Therewas an angry red mark on his temple, so she prodded it experimentally with herfingertip to see what it was. His skin felt strangely firm under her touch.

“Ow!What did you do that for?” he cried out.

“It’sred,” she said in explanation, hastily drawing her hand away. “I…”

“Bloodhas a tendency to do that,” he sarkily snapped back when he saw the evidence onher finger. “Evidently I hit my head on the rock out there. It explains why I passedout and this headache. I need to get home.”

“Towhere the fishermen live,” she pondered, “in the little homes.” She curled herhand up into a shell shape in demonstration.

“No,I live up in Tardis Castle,” he almost sneered, ignoring the action, “not amongthe ordinary people. Do you know nothing about Gallifreyans?”

Sheshook her head. “What’s a Galli…yaffy?” she tried to ask in amusement.

Helaughed at her attempt. “Gallifreyan,” he slowly repeated for her benefit,completely captivated by her tinkling laughter. “They’re my people. Full ofpomp, rules and regulations.”

Nonethe wiser, she nodded as though she understood. “Do you get pomp from the landor the sea?”

Realisingher ignorance, he quickly informed her, “Pomp isn’t a food. It’s a way ofbehaving. Like a king.”

“Oh!”Now this she knew perfectly. If he was bossed about as much as she was, shecould sympathise completely. Which reminded her of something else. “I have somany questions I want to ask you about your people.”

“Youcan ask about me too, if you like,” he offered congenially. “How come you werein the sea and were able to rescue me?”

“Gramps.”When his forehead puckered in confusion she continued, “I was collectingoysters as a treat for my grandfather. We are celebrating his…” She waved herhand about to try and find the appropriate word to describe his emergence.

“Birthday?”the prince suggested.

“Yes,that’s it,” she joyfully accepted. “They are his favourite, the ones from thisbay, so I travelled all the way here to get them.”

“Wheredid you travel from?”

“TheAriel coral reef,” she stated, wondering why he hadn’t remembered that part ofher name. She had to admit that she knew very little about these Gallifreyan humans.The wind suddenly picked up, signifying a coming storm. It was best that sheflee from the surface and return to the safe depths. “I’d better start swimmingback home. They will be expecting me.”

“Becareful out there, Donna,” he warned, “There are mermaids out there.”

“Arethere?” She wriggled backwards into the surf as surreptitiously as she could. “ShouldI be worried by such creatures?”

Henodded his head. “You hear such tales of fishermen being brought to theirdeaths by mermaids and their vile destructive actions.”

Ohdear, he didn’t like mermaids. Keen now to get away, she tried to desperatelyhide her tail within the incoming tide. “I’m sure that is just a story. It isnot the mermaids who cause any harm.”

“Ihave it on the best authority,” he insisted. “My father lost a good friend tothe mermaids.”

Griefgrasped her heart as she gazed upon him one last time. The fluttering ofwanting more would have to be ignored. “I am so sorry to hear that,” shesincerely told him; and then pushed backwards more firmly into the water.

“Wait!”he called out, sitting uneasily up to grasp her hand before she coulddisappear. “Let me take you out to dinner… to erm… to say thank you,” hestammered out when she hesitated at his request. “As friends, or anything elseyou like. It doesn’t have to be more, if you are willing.”

“Perhaps,”she conceded.

Hisgaze softened. “Will I ever see you again?” he queried. “No one will believe mewhen I tell them I was rescued by a ginger angel.”

Shemodestly burst into laughter at such a thought. “I will try to come back to seeyou one day, Doctor. Be careful on your surfboard.”

“Ohthat!” He turned to place his hand on the board, turned back to make some triteremark about it bringing her to him, and found she had vanished.

Wherehas she gone?  It was as if he had trulybeen visited by an angel or a ghost, but he didn’t believe that was the case. Withsome effort he hauled himself onto his feet and looked out to sea. There was nosign of her in the water at all. Not even a splash.

“Donna?Donna!” he cried out in horror. To his relief her head bobbed out of the wavessome distance away. “There you are!”

“Blimeyyou can shout,” she teased.

“Ithought you had been an apparition, or worse, you had drowned,” he confessedwith relief. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Pft!I’m a very experienced diver. It’d take a lot to drown me,” she boasted. “Bye!”

With a final wave oftheir hands, she was gone, and the prince was left on his own on the beachwondering how he would ever find her again. 

-o0o-