Free Dr. Who - BBC New Series 25 by Ghosts of India # Mark Morris

snakes before, and he knew the thing to do was stand still and let them go about their business. In his eleven years in India, this advice had always stood him in good stead – but not today. To Cameron’s horror the snake altered direction and began to slither towards him. When it was about fifteen metres away, it stopped, rearing up on its tail until it was taller than he was.
    Though terrified, Cameron noticed a couple of things about the snake at once. Firstly, he noticed that its distinctive yellow and black markings, and its even more distinctive ability to flatten its upper ribs so that the area below its head flared out in a hood shape, identified it as a King Cobra. And secondly, he noticed that the creature was not only huge but oddly misshapen, its body bulging with the same strange black carbuncles that he had seen on the crocodile last night.
    The Cobra regarded him with flat eyes, its head weaving from side to side. Its forked purple tongue flickered in and out of its mouth. Moving as slowly as he could, Cameron placed his rucksack on the ground and opened it. Suddenly the snake hissed, its head darting forward, its fangs dripping venom.
    Cameron jumped back, heart pounding. He knew that a snake like this could kill him with a single bite. However, this was a feigned attack, a warning. The Cobra’s head snapped back as though on a piece of elastic. Slowly Cameron reached into his rucksack and took out his
    catapult. Then he felt about on the ground until he found a suitable rock.
    The Cobra lunged again, and again Cameron jumped back. He had no doubt that the snake would keep playing this game until it either killed him or he managed to drive it away. Mouth dry, he loaded his catapult with the rock, took careful aim and fired.
    All his hours of practice paid off. The rock flew straight and true and struck the Cobra on its snout. It curled in on itself, dipping its head back into its nest of coils. Before it could recover, Cameron grabbed another rock, half-expecting the snake to come for him again.
    But to his immense relief, the massive, misshapen Cobra had obviously decided it had had enough. It turned and slithered away, disappearing back into the long grass at the side of the road.
    The Doctor and Donna were laughing their heads off.
    Donna had started it. At first it had been the rolling motion of the elephants which had set her off, and then she had been suddenly struck by the wonderful absurdity of her situation, and after that there was no stopping her.
    Gopal, Ranjit and the three men from Gandhi’s entourage who had come along with them – quiet, studious types, very polite and diffident – had looked at her in astonishment, but the Doctor and Gandhi had seemed to understand. Gandhi smiled away, all avuncular good humour, and the Doctor, after grinning along for a bit, had become so caught up in the infectiousness of her mood that he had started to laugh too.
     
    ‘Why do Mr Doctor and Miss Donna laugh so much?’
    Ranjit asked Gandhi, who he was riding with. ‘Are they affected by the sun?’
    Smiling, Gandhi said, ‘No, they are affected by life.
    Sometimes a person feels its worth and joy so keenly that their only recourse is to express the emotion through laughter.’
    ‘But aren’t they scared of what awaits us in the temple?’ Ranjit asked.
    ‘No doubt they are. But sometimes fear of the danger to come makes a person appreciate life all the more.’
    It was the cry for help which finally snapped the Doctor and Donna out of it. As they approached a thickly wooded area of neem trees, they heard someone yell, ‘Get away! Help! Heeeeelp!’
    ‘That’s a kid,’ Donna said, but the Doctor had already leaped down from his elephant and was sprinting through the trees. He dodged between trunks and hurdled bushes, before bursting into a clearing. The abandoned temple loomed on the far side, but this wasn’t what claimed his immediate attention.
    Directly in front of him, standing with his