Help is Always Given

Chapter 4

Merlin grabs up all his books and papers to take with and they all get up to follow the Doctor to where there's a lab, but Amy suddenly stops in her tracks and turns to Rory. In hushed tones she asks, "Where's John?"

"We left him in the War Room."

"He shouldn't be alone in here, the TARDIS can mess with his head," she says worriedly.

"Doctor!" Amy calls ahead. "Rory and I are going to check on John and see if he could use some help!"

"Alright, meet back at the control center in an hour!" The Doctor calls back.

Amy and Rory head off down a side passageway towards the War Room.

When they arrive, they find John studying three separate maps all at once. Without even looking up he says, "Camelot is about midway between the Isle of the Blest and the Lake of Avalon." He walks over to the battle-strategy island with one of the maps. Rory notices that the island is lit up now and has dots at the places where Camelot, the Lake of Avalon, and the Isle of the Blest are. He figures John must have figured out how to operate the complex machine.

"This," John says pointing to a blue dot just to the south of the red dot, which Rory figures represents Camelot, "is the TARDIS. Now, I'm guessing that when we move, so does this dot. But seeing as this is only a map of the UK, I'm also guessing that this map changes too. Probably to fit the users needs."

"The Doctor and I have to go to the Isle of the Blest," Amy says. "Have you seen that anywhere on the maps?"

John looks down at the battle island and names of places from medieval times appear. John bends down lower as to be able to more easily read the names, and after a short while, a green dot appears on the opposite side of Camelot.

"Ah, there it is! The Isle of the Blest! You and the Doctor will be going there to get whatever it is you need to save Arthur?" Amy nods. "Alright. After you've acquired what you need, you'll go here..." He points to the orange dot, indicating the Lake of Avalon, "to where Merlin and Arthur will be waiting for you."

"That's quite a distance without the TARDIS," Amy states. "Good thing the Doctor asked about the Dragon."

"Dragon?" Rory and John ask at the same time.

"Oh.." Amy forgot they hadn't heard about that yet. "Yeah. Dragon. Merlin was also a Dragon Lord and he had a dragon which will come in helpful with covering long distances in a short time."

Both Rory and John are wide eyed. An actual dragon! Amazing!

"Hang on!" Rory says jealously. "You, my wife, gets to ride on an actual, proper dragon?! Not fair!"

"Actually, I think that'd be a bit too adventurous for me," John admits.

"Yeah, same," Rory agrees and they all laugh. "We should show this to the others," he takes out his phone and takes a picture of the dots on the map. "There, that should do." Rory helps John carry some of the maps while Amy picked up the TARDIS map and started searching for a room that sounded like it'd be a laboratory. It hadn't yet been an hour so she figures they'll still be in the laboratory. After a few moments of searching, she finds a wing called 'Science' so they start heading in that direction, Amy leading the way.

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They reach the Science wing after only ten minutes. The doors are labeled, so they look for one that has the laboratory. There are quite a few rooms that look like a professors office - huge desk covered in papers, chalk or white boards with scribbled equations on them. The fifth door on the left is labeled 'Experimentation Room / Laboratory'. Amy opens the door to a huge room with many lab tables. There are various kinds of lab equipment, some of which don't look to have come from Earth. Some of the equipment is very old, quite a few look to be advanced. At the far side of the room, the Doctor, Merlin, and Sherlock are searching through a cabinet that takes up the entire wall. Amy, Rory, and John make their way over to their friends.

"Having any luck?" Amy asks.

"Some," Merlin replies, still searching in the cabinet. "We've found all but three of the ingredients so far. I must confess, I had doubts, I'm surprised that the Doctor has any of them!"

"Well I'm sure the last few ingredients will be in here too," Rory assures. He's at the table looking at the book at the ingredients that aren't crossed off, then goes and joins their searching.

"Actually, Doctor," Amy says quietly to him. "John's managed to map out everything. We've brought the maps so we can study the land. We're going to have to seem like we've lived there our whole lives and know the land."

The Doctor turns from his searching and joins Amy who had sat down and spread a map out. "Yes, Amy, you're right. What if we're asked where we come from? We'll need to be able to tell them something and know enough if they ask further questions." He gives her a look of well done and she smiles.

"Rory!" Amy calls to him and holds out her hand. Rory knows what she needs and pulls out his phone and hands it to her. "Thank you," she smiles at him.

Amy gives the Doctor the run through of where they are compared to Camelot, the Isle of the Blest and the Lake of Avalon. John tells them of a clear patch of land just outside Camelot where they could have Merlin call the dragon for them. John figures out the approximate kilometers they will have to travel from Camelot to the Isle and then to the Lake.

"Merlin's right," the Doctor states, "using the dragon will cut down on at least four days journey, if not more."

The Doctor, Amy, and John continue to study the maps as Sherlock, Rory, and Merlin found the rest of the ingredients and had started making the elixir.

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