Leela of the Sevateem (noblesavage) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-01-25 22:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leela |
"Would you like a jelly baby?"
Who: Leela, dream!Tomas and dream!Four (Narrative)
What: The Face of Evil. Or, Leela is saved by Tomas, meets the 'Evil One'
When: Many, many centuries in the future
Where: An unnamed Earth colony, home to the Sevateem and the Tesh
Rating: PG? Bits of violence, but that's typical with Leela.
Status: Complete!
Banishment was worse than they had made it out to be. Not only had her father so fearlessly sacrificed himself (all in vain), but there were more shadows and... creatures in the night than she'd ever been warned of. Every sound, every movement, had Leela on alert, her hands always ready to prepare her crossbow for an attack.
It hadn't helped that Neeva had apparently sent men out to kill her. There was no other reason for her fellow Sevateem to be out in the wilds. She'd managed to take one down before Tomas, another of her tribe, intervened and took his friend down.
In a way, she was thankful. He'd been quicker on the trigger than she could've ever been. In quite another way, she was furious. Tomas had no place to intervene in her affairs, especially now that she was no longer part of the tribe. “Tomas. What are you doing here?”
“I've come to take you back.”
“You can't.” There was no way around that. Banished meant banished. It was something you never crossed, even if you were someone like Leela – having no fear of Xoanon made you more dangerous to have amongst the tribe, simply because of Neeva's zealotry.
“I saw Neeva send them. We can tell the council.”
“It won't make any difference. Not now.” They never went back on their decisions. Even if she dared to return, she simply would've been put through the Test of the Horda... and probably killed. There wasn't a Sevateem alive who didn't know of their destructive capabilities.
“You can't cross the boundary!”
“They didn't leave me much choice.”
“There are phantoms in the beyond!”
Leela rolled her eyes. Superstition. No wonder Neeva had such influence. “Feast fire stories!”
“Well, there's something there...”
A flash of irritation surged through Leela. She was just as much a warrior as him, and he dared?! Being one of the few women in their tribe didn't make her any lesser! “Then I'll face it! I can take care of myself.”
“I'll go with you.”
He would willingly offer himself to the terrors he'd described? Somehow, she doubted it. Tomas was just as blinded as the others by the tribe's belief in Xoanon, in the Evil One. He'd just slow her down. “No. Go back to the tribe. I'm going now.”
She walked past him, but paused, turning to face him one last time. “Goodbye, Tomas. Beware of the devious Calib. One day he'll get so cunning even he won't know what he's planned.”
Moving off into the jungle, trying to ignore the growls from all around her, Leela was confronted by a... stranger noise. Whistling? In the jungle? When that suddenly fell silent, and the growls intensified, she ran for it – she wasn't getting eaten this early on!
Unfortunately, she stumbled, tripping over a low-lying rock... and came face to face with an unfamiliar pair of boots. That wasn't something any Sevateem would wear...
“Hello!” Leela pushed herself to her knees, immediately on the defensive. Who was this strange man? And why was he so... cheerful? “Hello, did I startle you? Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you.”
Suddenly, it clicked where she'd seen that face before. She got to her feet, pulling her arm from his grip. “The Evil One!”
He didn't even seem to register that. “Well, nobody's perfect, but that's overstating it a little! No, I'm the Doctor. What's your name?”
Was she honestly about to have a civil conversation with the Evil One? Was she dreaming all of this? The most she could do was keep her answers short, just in case he wanted to use them against the tribe... “Leela.”
“Leela. That's nice name, Leela. I never met anyone called Leela bef-- would you like a jelly baby?”
The sudden change in topic almost caught Leela unaware. Babies? Really? “It's true, then? They say the Evil One eats babies...”
He laughed. “You mustn’t believe all they say! No, these are sweets, they're rather good,” as he spoke, he was rummaging in this pockets, eventually coming out with a crumpled paper bag filled with... something. “Go on, have one. Go on.”
Hesitantly, she reached into the bag, pulling out a small, strange little thing. Black in colour. She sniffed it, her hunter instincts telling her that yes, this thing was likely perfectly edible. Tearing in half, she popped one half into her mouth as this Doctor started to talk again.
“Leela. Leela? Either you've got four friends with very bad colds, or we're in danger. Which is it?”
Leela glanced around, trying to judge things a little better. Definitely danger. Danger from the Evil One, no doubt. “They're your creatures.”
“They are?” If this was the Evil One, he was truly remarkable at acting clueless. “I wonder if they know that. What are they like?”
“Well, they can't be seen! They are phantoms.” That was why they were so feared. Why no Sevateem would willingly leave after nightfall.
“Invisible. We've got a chance.” With that, he pulled a strange device from his pocket, unlike anything Leela had ever seen before. A device that, honestly, looked like it shouldn't have fit in his pocket – did anything about this man make sense?
“A magic talisman?”
“No, it's a clockwork egg timer.” None of that made any sense to Leela. Except perhaps the egg part. Eggs were rare here, a delicacy that only Andor was allowed. “To our friends, whatever they are, the visible spectrum is irrelevant. They're blind. Crudely speaking, they home in on vibrations.”
He wound up the strange device and placed it on a nearby rock, giving Leela time to pick up her crossbow. Better safe than sorry when the Evil One's minions were around. “Now, Leela.”
Things had fallen silent. She looked around, curiosity peaking. “They've gone!”
He shushed her almost immediately. Clearly, this man knew what he was doing... or was very good at pretending he knew. “I want you to do exactly what I say. You and I are going to walk away from here very slowly and very quietly, and no matter what happens, you must not cry out or make any sudden move. And above all... you mustn't run 'til I tell you. Is that clear?”
Leela nodded. “Good. Now, come on... come on.”
He offered her his hand and she hesitantly took it. They walked carefully, and Leela, for a brief moment, thought that perhaps this 'Evil One' had been a hunter once. He certainly had the pace of one.
“Freeze.”
“What?”
“Shh!” The Doctor held her back and pointed. There were footprints being laid in the sand ahead. Footprints of some large, entirely invisible creature... “Now. Tread carefully.”
Almost immediately after he'd said that, he tripped on a vine. The footprints took a step closer... and that strange contraption the Doctor had set suddenly started ringing. One of the strangest noises that Leela had ever heard, most definitely.
The footprints vanished, and the Doctor grinned. “Saved by the bell! Come on, come on...”