The Legends Of A Blue Box: Short Stories

Story One: A Little Planet Called Earth

Joyful echoes of voices merrily skipped along in the wind. Their words faded away as the air blew them further into the atmosphere, whilst Clara Oswald began to recognise certain accents. They were the children from her lessons that day, who now happened to be socialising in the local park. Some sentences made her turn defensively towards the sounds, before her mind brought her back to reality when she noticed that they were too far away to argue with. Other comments drew a slight grin on Clara's face, eliminating her, already, rosy cheeks.
Things like, "English was good today, wasn't it?" resulted in her eyes closing with pride, although particular replies defining English as 'tiresome' made her want to explode in anger.
She continued to keep her ears pierced as she wandered along the tree-invaded path, hoping that the conversations would still be audible by the time she arrived home...which clearly wasn't going to happen.
Almost obliviously, Clara shot a hard glare in the direction of the playground, as a line of dialogue made her weary, "Oi, Miss, what you doing here?"
She wasn't there. They couldn't see her, she couldn't even see the swings herself, as a stretch of bushes blocked her view. Hesitantly, she neared the plants, wishing for a gap in the leaves to stare through.
"Eh? Miss, is that you?" the same boy stuttered, his voice battling through nerves, "Miss...I, erm - Sir?"
Alright. Now Clara definitely knew no one could see her. But if the children couldn't see her, then what were they witnessing?
She reached the bushes just as she spotted one of her students backing away. Every other child was cowering behind him, his courage seeming over-powering and sturdy from a distance.
Just as Clara was about to adjust her position, a low hum-like growl shot towards the boy, as if an invisible force was knocking him into line beside his fellow classmates.
The back side of the crowd migrated away, their legs and screams dying to get home. Clara turned her head to the left, in time to catch a huge group of her youngest class racing away like a dog from a leash.
Squinting back through the hedge, another majority of the grouped students tackled their way out of the area, leaving only nine or ten children left standing.
It was then, that Clara saw it. She saw what they were rushing away from, and she saw why they were left in terror.
Letting her bag drop to the ground like a weight, she hurried herself over to the entrance of the playground; rushing in as soon as she got there.
"Get home! All of you!" she yelled, begging with her arms to motion the exit, "Run! And don't stop until you know you are safe."
The remaining pupils stared at her with glowing eyes, until all nine of them dashed passed her in a pure agony to get home. Only one boy remained in fear, with legs vibrating and hands far apart from his sides.
"Thomas!" Clara screamed over the deafening scrapes of the wind and roars of the encounter, "Tom, get out!"
The silhouette was framed tiny, as the alien life form before him rose in size. Clara couldn't help noticing how much of a whirlwind the creature was creating. Papers and pencils were flying all around; the book's pages being violently ripped from their spines as the winds grew angrier. An alien of immense size hurled it around; it's eyes horrendously massive compared to it's plump arms, as it's feet just kept on growing and shrinking in random amounts.
"Thomas, please!" Clara screamed in the highest pitch she could reach, "Get home! Now!"
Without a second warning, Thomas stumbled back, his eyes darting from exit to alien as he ran from Clara's sight.
Clara turned to look at the towering monstrosity of reds and yellows, before rushing away herself. She had no idea where she was planning to end up, but she did have some idea of what she aimed to find. A TimeLord from a perished planet in space. A TimeLord with a mysterious old wooden police box. A friend, with a mind set for saving the universe.
She raced along the stoned paths and passed the familiar old trees she usually spotted on a worry-free stroll. Without even taking into account what she was running into, a tall figure ran into her, it's face and clothes blackened from the darkening sky.
Clara gasped, "I am so sorry, I just didn't -" she saw the silhouette run on, oblivious of her words, "Oh, I - I wouldn't go that way! There's...something that -"
"Oh, good, a something?" a voice trailed back through the wind, "I suppose that's another reason why I'm going this way!"
Clara took a last glance at her path ahead, before deciding to race back towards the playground to help.
She noticed the figure dart straight into the creature's area, obviously wanting to desperately either play on the swings, or say hello to a monster from out of space.
Clara followed him in, "Please, It's not what you think it is! It's not like us! Look, I've got a friend who can sort it all out; he just needs you to be safe!"
"Oh? And who's that?" the man asked, turning around to face her, "It wouldn't happen to be me, by any chance, would it?"
The Doctor settled on a clever grin, examining Clara's position carefully.
She shifted with an unbelieving sigh, her face relaxing at the sight of a non-crazy adult...well, that wasn't entirely true.
"I was looking for you - the TARDIS picked up some peculiar readings, I thought you might want to see." the Doctor explained, carefully adjusting his trusty sonic device.
"I was looking for you!"
"Well we can't both be looking for each other. You go and look for something else. There's plenty of other aliens in this universe to look for: I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
With that, the Doctor lifted his sonic, raising it to eye level, and lowering it's whirring sound a few pitches. "Testing, testing, one two three!"
After another series of clicks and whizzing acknowledgements, the Doctor reported, "Three two one. Clara!"
Clara focused on her friend, "Yes, Doctor?"
"Do you happen to have any trees on you?
Clara's eyes inflated to the size of tomatoes, her pupils darting around, "No! Why would I just happen to carry around a tree?"
"The Earth is home to over three trillion trees, I would have thought you'd have carried at least one with you." the Doctor moaned, "Why do humans never do the obvious?"
Clara rushed around, desperately accepting the hundreds of trees surrounding them, but failing to think of a solution to carry them.
"I need some sort of object that is neither mad-made nor grown by nature, and considering that trees are arguably both, they should do the job." the Doctor yelled, "This creature comes from the planet Cerrorania. If I teased him back there with a man-made or Earth grown object, he'd know that there's no point in leaving a planet, only to arrive back on the same one."
Clara chuckled, nodding towards the alien, "I wouldn't have thought that that could ever be so smart!"
"He didn't like that."
All of a sudden, Clara scanned her surroundings. This, she had been doing for the last five minutes, but only recently, had she taken anything in.
"If we grow so many trees..." Clara muttered, "how come their not taking over our planet? Because we use them!"
She darted to the floor, causing the Doctor to find where she had fallen. She emerged holding a school workbook, the majority of its pages torn out from the winds.
The TimeLord grinned, catching the book and turning courageously to the creature.
"I do hope you have trees on your planet, because they are very useful indeed." the Doctor grinned, "If you're so desperate to visit another planet, then why not make your own a different one? Grow some trees: That'll do the trick!" Clara watched her friend proudly, her hair flying behind her like waves, as the winds began to die away, "Just remember that this planet is occupied, and it's full. Sorry! But there's no room left for a big fellow like you." the winds, roars and flying papers relaxed, whilst the Doctor held up the book in pride, "Find another home across the stars! Name it after your language and create it how you would want to find it, because when the next generation of your species grow old, they'll want to remember how their ancestors searched the distant galaxies just to find a new home. They won't want to know how they invaded an innocent planet called Earth." the TimeLord threw the book into the air, pointing his screwdriver with his last words, "Earth is full. Find another planet, and when do, don't come back here. Because these humans are staying put with one planet, and they are not open for welcoming strangers."
With that, the Doctor's screwdriver let out a whirr of its own, followed by a tunnel of green light. The book disappeared into the light circle without another order. Gradually, but understandingly, the creature did the same; its orange scales and red fur stretching as the sonic portal beckoned him further.
The Doctor held on to his device with all his might, as the winds and screeches of the portal persuaded him to let go. Clara watched in both hope and horror, her growing eyes reflecting the green glows.
Then, as if nothing had ever happened, the monster vanished into thin air. The TimeLord toppled onto his back, whilst his screwdriver bounced from his hand as he hit the ground. Clara stumbled back at the impact too, her vision now picking up the floating papers and books, with no wind to be felt at all.
She rushed over to her friend when she thought it eventually safe, her smile painting over her cheeks. The Doctor sat up with a satisfied breath, his grin imitating Clara's as she came near.
"Did you really mean that about Earth? And the trees?" she asked, still catching her breath through a disguised smile of care.
"Of course not! Every planet has trees!" the Doctor shook his head, "It's just maybe only Earth that keeps them."
As the remaining papers fluttered around the pair in ripples, the sky grew dark in preparation for another night, where the inhabitants of the world would wake again for yet another day on planet Earth. Their little planet called Earth.