IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Three

"I'm glad the Doctor brought that magic medicine because I have a feeling we're about to need it," Paul said as everyone backed away from the caveman.

"Tall ones!" the Neanderthal in front of the group yelled as they ran towards them. "Kill them!"

"No!" the caveman yelled to his clan. "This one here," he added, pointing to the Doctor, "he healed me."

The Neanderthals slowed their stride but they kept advancing while the Doctor and everyone else backed away from them.

"They're not friends," the leader said as he and his group menaced the Doctor and the others with their spears. "They take everything from us!"

"We're not here to do that," the Doctor said as he and his friends continued to back up away from them, "I healed your clan member. We come in peace. We're looking for others of our kind."

The leader snorted.

"Others of your kind are everywhere!" he roared with fury, "the Tall Ones are everywhere and we can't find peace because they're always trying to kill us! They come through the living trees and hunt everything. We starve because of them!"

"The living trees…" Rory muttered to the others. "Got to be the gateway."

"Yeah, but how we gonna get them to tell us where it is?" Bill said.

"Wait, the Doctor said they have no imagination," Paul said to them.

"Yeah, well they apparently have enough imagination to imagine us killed," Amy said.

Her eyes bulged when Paul hurried past her towards the Doctor. She called his name but he ignored her as he came up beside the Doctor. To their amazement he began to sing Eleanor Rigby. The Doctor grinned when the stunned Neanderthals froze and stared at Paul in confusion.

"I see what he's doing," Jane said. "The Doctor said they can't think of anything creative so they're shocked that Paul's singing to them."

By now, the Doctor was singing with him. The others glanced at each other and came up behind them, singing Eleanor Rigby while the Neanderthals looked on in a stunned silence. When the song was finished, they fell silent and waited for the cavemen to speak. The leader came forward, his spear at his side.

"How you do that? You make sounds like birds," he said in amazement.

"Birds?" Paul said, glancing around at the snowy surroundings. "I'm surprised birds exist here."

"Yes, we make sounds like birds. It's one of the things our kind can do," the Doctor said.

The leader stared at him.

"Who are you? Where did you come from?" he said, shaking his head. "Used to be ones like us now they're dying and more of you come. Where do you live?"

"We live where the living trees are," the Doctor said. "However, we've lost our way. Can you show us where the living trees are?"

"You don't know?" the leader said.

"We've lost our way," the Doctor said. "We need your help."

The leader let out a caustic laugh.

"Our help? You destroy us, why should we help you?"

"Because we helped one of your own," the Doctor said, pointing to the young man.

The Neanderthals looked at him and he showed them where the wound had been.

"They heal me. Don't know how," he said to them as he ran his fingers over the smooth patch of skin which stuck out in the middle of his extremely hairy body. While he was trying to convince the others that they meant them no harm, Paul glanced at the others and noticed that everyone looked alike. The only difference between them was the women had breasts but they were just as hairy and mannish as the men. The three children who were with them looked like miniature versions of the adults. Paul was amazed that they could tell each other apart before he figured that they would think the same of him and his group. His eyes fell on one female near the back whose belly was protruding under her mammoth skin toga and he guessed this was Ogla. His attention turned back to the leader when the man pointed at him.

"How did he make bird sound?" the leader said to the Doctor.

"Our kind can make bird sounds," the Doctor said. "That is what he does in our clan. Makes bird sounds."

Paul grinned when the other companions snickered at that. They fell silent when the cavemen got in a kind of group huddle and debated whether or not to help them.

"Well at least Papa Smurf impressed them enough that they won't kill us now," Amy said.

Paul looked at the Doctor.

"What the hell is a smurf?" he said to him.

The Doctor grinned and explained what it was. Amy laughed when Paul flipped her off when he finished telling him she was basically calling him a very short blue guy.

"Figured it had something to do with height," Paul said to the Doctor while Amy giggled.

The cavemen finished their meeting and turned back towards them.

"We will help you if you help us," the leader said.

"We did help you, we saved him from death," the Doctor said, pointing at the young man.

"But you must help us more. Fur beast is dead; we need help carrying meat back to our cave."

"And if we do this for you, you'll show us where the living trees are?" the Doctor said.

"Yes."

The Doctor sighed and looked at his companions.

"Looks like we have to haul meat back to their cave," he said to them.

They followed the Neanderthals back to the mammoth who was now dead and lying on its side. They held back and watched while the leader and his clan climbed up and onto the mammoth and began to skin it with the stone points of their spears. To their amazement, they took off their mammoth skins and used them for carrying the meat.

"Blimey," Paul said as they stared at their naked, hairy bodies. "I envy them. I can feel the cold through this heavy coat I have on and they're not even fazed."

"I told ya they were designed for cold weather," the Doctor said as they began to carve up the animal and lay the chunks of meat on the inside of their skin clothes.

"Just looking at them like that is making me feel cold," Rory said. "And I have to say it's a good thing we were genetically altered because I don't think I would have liked living my life as a short, hairy…Klingon."

The leader scowled at them and pointed to the skins as he and the others finished filling them up. The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes as he and his companions came forward. They paired up and used two people to carry the heavy skins. The leader studied them for a moment before letting out a satisfied grunt. He and the others let the Doctor and his group carry the meat while they grabbed their spears and headed back to the cave. The Doctor glowered at them but held his tongue as they walked behind them with the supply of meat. It took them about twenty minutes and a climb back up out of the valley before they saw the opening of a large cave through the swirling snow. The cave was raised up and there were several large rocks in front of it that acted like stepping stones up to it. The Neanderthals went up the stepping stones with no problem but the Doctor cautioned his group and they slowly walked up the slippery stones into the cave. By the time, they got inside; one of the men had the beginnings of a fire, putting some dry moss over a tiny flame he had made. The Doctor and his group laid the skins of meat down by the entrance and looked around. At first they couldn't see anything but as the fire grew larger, the interior was lit up and they noticed that the interior was huge. The Neanderthals eyed them warily while they picked up branches and skewered the meat on them before setting them into the fire. The Doctor and his group kept their distance in case the cavemen changed their minds and decided they might make a nice addition to the meat cooking on the fire. While the men huddled around the fire, the women rested and the three children, two boys and one girl, came over to stare at the strangers in silent awe. The Doctor smiled and waved at them but that only confused the children and they kept on staring.

"Great, now we're gonna be curiosities the whole time we're here," Rory said.

"Are we prisoners?" Bill said. "Are they gonna let us go?"

"They better if they know what's good for them," the Doctor said. "Excuse me!" he yelled.

The cavemen looked at them.

"Yes, can we go now? We're in a hurry," the Doctor said.

"We're hungry. We eat now and you eat too."

"Ah," the Doctor said, staring at the sizzling slabs of meat.

"We eat then we show you the living trees," the leader said.

"Fine but after you eat then you'll show us?" the Doctor said impatiently.

"Nog will, she know the way," the leader said, pointing to a young female who was sitting with Ogla.

Nog gave them a look of contempt.

"Father," she said to the leader. "Get Naka to do it, he can lead the Tall Ones to…"

"Naka is needed here to guard against other Tall Ones. You will go. I am leader of clan, I have spoken!"

Nog snorted softly and glared at the Doctor and his companions.

"Great, we're going to be led by a pissed off Klingon who'll probably shove us off a cliff when she gets a chance," Rory muttered under his breath.

He and his wife and friends began to cough as the cave filled up with smoke from the fire. Paul grimaced and waved his hand back and forth in front of his face, trying to clear the air and keep the smoke from entering his lungs. William sat down beside him and tried to get comfortable on the rocky floor while Paul gave him a sympathetic look.

"I hope Pepperland is the paradise it claims to be," William said to Paul. "Because if it's more rocks and caves, I'm going back to the TARDIS."

"According to the film, it's got green fields and flowers and it's very colorful," Paul replied.

"I sincerely hope so because I'm tired of looking at white snow and grey rocks," Bill replied while Paul chuckled and patted his shoulder.

Paul heard someone coming up on his left and he turned his head to see the children taking tentative steps towards him.

"Can you make the bird sounds again?" the girl asked shyly.

Paul grinned and sang Eleanor Rigby to them. All movement and conversation in the cave stopped and the Doctor noticed that everyone's eyes were riveted on Paul while he sang. Paul got through half of the song and then had a thought.

"Bill, sing with me," he said.

"Huh?" Bill said in shock.

"Come on, mate, if I'm gonna teach ya, gotta know how good a singer you are. Sing with me."

He resumed singing Eleanor Rigby and after a moment's hesitation, Bill joined in. Paul's eyes widened in delight when he heard Bill's singing voice. He stopped singing and smiled.

"So it was you singing those songs. I wondered if it was or other musicians. You definitely will be successful as a solo artist."

"Really? I'm that good?"

The Doctor and his companions nodded in agreement and Paul put his hand on Bill's shoulder when he grinned at that. He looked past his adopted brother to the ones sitting at the fire and near the mouth of the cave and sighed when he noticed them staring at him in silent awe.

"Shame that they didn't have the imagination it took to sing a song," Paul said to everyone. "Must have been dull living here. I mean, look, no cave paintings, no nothing. No wonder they went extinct."

"Imagination and creativity is what allowed homo sapiens to think up ways to adapt to changes in the environment," the Doctor said. "Without that, they kept on doing the same thing they always did and ended up dying off when they couldn't cope with the changes."

Paul stared at the children beside him with a mixture of sadness and pity. The children came forward tentatively and touched his parka and felt the fur jutting out from the inside of it. Paul smiled when they touched his nose and face and squealed in delight at their bravery. Paul took off his left mitten, slowly reached his hand out and took the girl's hand in his. The girl stared at his hand in fascination, taking it in her two hands and studying it while the two boys looked on. The Doctor watched Paul for a moment and then looked at the adults. All of the adults were watching Paul's interaction with the children. Some of them were giving him wary glances but others looked as fascinated as the girl. He wondered what it must have been like for the Neanderthals to meet homo sapiens for the first time and how shocked they must have been to see someone that both resembled them and was different from them at the same time. Paul took his hand away and he smiled when the girl came and sat down beside him without any fear. The two boys stared at her for a moment and they too walked over and sat among the others while the Doctor and his companions smiled warmly at them. They sat together while the meat finished cooking. After it was done, the leader brought over a couple of huge hunks of meat and sat it down in front of them. Then he went back to the fire and the children and everyone else gathered around the fire and ate their meal. The Doctor's group stared at the meat while they debated whether or not to eat it. Finally, the Doctor reached out, pulled up a small strip and ate it while his friends looked on. The Doctor smacked his lips and nodded.

"Not bad. I think it's safe to eat. Better do so because we don't know how far we have to walk and we all need all the calories we can get."

Everyone knelt around the meat and very gingerly peeled off chunks and strips, blowing on the meat before popping it in their mouths. The leader glanced at them and grunted with satisfaction when he saw them eating. He turned back to his own hunk of meat and all of them ate in silence.

Once they were finished, the Doctor and his companions used some of the snow to clean the grease off their hands.

"Okay, can Nog show us where to go now?" he asked the leader.

The leader grunted.

"Nog, show them the living trees," he said to her.

Nog let out a soft sigh but she obeyed her father. But as she was walking towards them, Ogla suddenly let out a pained yell and the Doctor and everyone else froze in shock when her water broke in front of them and she began to go into labor.

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next

Your Name or Alias:      Your E-mail (optional):

Please type your review below. Only positive reviews and constructive criticism will be posted.