HOWLING HALLOW
Chapter Seven Max looked up when everyone else entered the room. They were back to their normal selves, all of the lycan were wearing their medallions and cloaks and the Doctor was wearing his trench coat and had his pelt in his pocket. The Doctor walked over to Max who was sitting on the jump seat. "We're ready to leave now," the Doctor said to Max. "Are you going to join us?" Max nodded and stood up. He took his cloak under the seat and put it on and took his medallion out of his pocket. When he was ready, everyone went to the front door and the Doctor opened it and looked out. In the time they'd been gone, a traveling fair had been set up between them and the bazaar complete with a huge circus tent and several cages on wheels with animals inside. It was night but the moon wasn't completely full, although it was nearly there so everyone kept the medallions on for safety. The Doctor let everyone step outside and he closed the door behind him. They put their hoods up and headed towards the cages. Now that they were outside, the noticed a smaller circus tent was behind the large one and there was a large wooden helter skelter behind that along with some game booths and some pony rides. There were many people walking around and they picked their way through them to get to the cages. Inside were several alien animals. They stopped at one cage where a dark purple bear roamed around the small confines, roaring when he saw the people staring at him. The next cage contained a giant lizard that had orange skin with yellow stripes along its back. The lizard resembled a kimono dragon and it flicked its tongue when they stopped to look at it. There was a large bat creature in the next cage the resembled a hairy krillatane and in the last cage was a large white puff of fur that seemed to move by rolling itself around. "No lycan here," Ian said. "Maybe they're in one of the tents?" Rachel said, pointing to the big circus tent. They headed towards it. In the front of the tent was a large opening. The tent flap was pinned back and they walked up to it and looked inside. They saw a tightrope over their heads with a rope below and three rings made out of wooden blocks. There were bleachers on the far left and on the other side was another pinned back entrance. But that was it. They walked around it to the smaller tent. This one had a man standing outside it, urging passerby to come inside and look. They listened for a moment while he rattled off what was inside and they stiffened when he said werewolf child. They looked at each other and walked up to the man. The Doctor pulled out a credit stick and paid for their admissions with it. Steeling themselves they went inside and found they had to walk through wooden barriers that had been put up on either side of the entrance. The barriers went back and forth from one side of the tent to the other and there were display cases and cages on either side of them. The first thing they saw on their right was a display case that held a shrunken body in it. The top half looked like a kitten and the bottom of it looked like a fish. "What the hell is this?" Rose said, pointing to it. "That, my dear lady is the Corian Mermaid." They looked to their right and saw a man enter that was dressed in a plum shirt with forest green hose and black felt shoes. He was wearing a forest green skullcap on his head and had a pudgy face. He also was wearing a black codpiece that was padded until it came out about half a foot from his crotch. "I am Mardron," he said, bowing. "This, m'lady, is a very rare skeleton of the Corian Mermaid, an elusive creature that lives in the mercury oceans on Corian. Without anyone asking him, Mardron gave them a guided tour, showing them everything as they walked around the narrow walkway. Most of it was skeletal remains or artifacts from some dig. But the Doctor noticed that there was a covered cage at the very end of the tour and he was able to guess what might be inside. Finally, they reached the cage and Mardron stepped across the wooden barrier and put his hand on one corner of the purple sheet covering the cage. "And now for the finale," he said. "A living werewolf child!" With a flourish, he jerked the sheet off the metal cage. Inside it, on the bottom, was straw and crouching on the straw at the back of the cage was an emaciated little girl. She was Asian with closely cropped black hair that was dirty and matted and had pieces of straw sticking out of it in some places. She didn't look like she was no more than five years old. The Doctor sensed the anger around him and he also had to restrain himself from jumping over the wooden barrier and slapping the gleeful grin off Mardron's face. "So, how is this a werewolf?" Britney said. "Doesn't look like one to me. Looks like a starving and abused child." "Well…um, it isn't a full moon tonight, sorry, you'll just have to take my word for it," Mardron said sheepishly. "But this is a werewolf, honestly." He coughed nervously when everyone glowered at him and pointed to the exit behind them. "Okay, out you get, next group has to come in, go on," he said, knowing he was in danger of getting punched. "Come on," the Doctor said when no one moved at first. Reluctantly, they walked out of the tent. The Doctor looked over his shoulder as he left and saw the pleading look on the child's face. They went over near the Helter Skelter before they spoke. "What do we do?" Britney asked. "We can't let that child stay like that; did you see how thin she was?" Ian said. "Even if she isn't lycan, she's still being abused and starved." "I agree but we have to wait till we can get to her without being seen. We need a diversion. Blast, no full moon tonight, otherwise we could have turned into lycan and scared everyone away. Rachel come up to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Leave it to me, litter mate," she said. "All I ask is…do you have any fake blood?" "Fake blood?" the Doctor said. "Yeah, something realistic that I can put on my body so I can run from the woods and yell, help I've been attacked by a werewolf. That sort of thing." The Doctor's eyes widened in understanding and he patted her on the shoulder. "I think I might have just the thing. Follow me," he said. "Everyone else, we'll be right back." The Doctor and Rachel hurried towards the TARDIS. Max watched them go and when they were out of earshot, he looked at his pack. "Litter mate?" he said. "Yeah, we adopted him and Rose as our litter mates while you were off brooding," John said. "Problem with it?" Rose could tell that Max didn't like the challenging tone in John's voice and she walked up to him. "This wasn't mine or the Doctor's idea, it was theirs, so don't get angry at him or me," Rose said. "He doesn't have the right to get angry," John said. "Rose was welcome into the pack and the Doctor's done so much for us that he deserves to be an honorary lycan. Plus, that pelt of his works so he can become a lycan." "What?" Max said. "The moth-eaten bit of fur can turn him into a wolf?" "Yes, he has this magical room that simulates a moonlit night," Ian said. "We went in there and the moon was so realistic it changed us. He put that pelt on and transformed along with us so we decided since he could do that we would adopt him and make him a brother. Come on, Max, surely you aren't that resentful of him. The Doctor hasn't given you any reason to hate him." Max looked at his friends and noticed they were waiting for an answer. "I…don't resent him. I just have never had…" "Competition?" Rose said when he trailed off. "He's not competition. At least not for this pack. He told me he declared himself the alpha male of his TARDIS and made me his alpha female." Max stiffened at that and Rose sighed. "Look, I like you as a friend and I know you fancy me but the Doctor and I have been together for a little over a year now and I've grown close to him and he's the one I wanna be with. Can't we just be friends? I don't want to have to choose between you and everyone else. So will you just let me be your friend?" Max nodded and smiled when Rose squeezed his hand. "HELP!" Everyone turned towards the woods when they heard Rachel yell. She was coming out of the woods, fake blood covering her face and arms while she pretended to stagger. "Help! I've been attacked by a werewolf!" she yelled at the stunned crowd. "There's a werewolf in the woods, coming this way!" Then they heard a wolf howl coming from the woods and everyone began screaming and panicking while they scattered. Max told everyone to pretend to run away and they headed towards the TARDIS while they screamed. They looked back and noticed that the guide was running out of the tent and the man who had taken admission was running back towards the big top tent. They slowed down and looked at each other before they headed back towards the smaller tent. On the way there, the Doctor caught up to them. "Quite a performance, eh? Now let's get that child and get out of here before anyone notices!" he said.
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