Chapter Four; Unleashed

"Hey! Can I see that?"

This was shouted over the howling wind, as the snake-man-monster-thing flew fast – far too fast in Donna's opinion – towards its destination. It was flying with its chest parallel to the ground, so as to provide it's flat back for the two unorthodox passengers to sit on without being thrown off, and the Doctor had crawled up the thing's spine to where the thief sat on its shoulder, eyes closed and concentrating.

The thief opened one eye and gave a dismissive grunt to the Doctor's query. "See what?"

"Your armband!" The Doctor succeeded in reaching the shoulder and sat next to Bakura, his feet dangling over the empty air and long drop below. He groped in his pouch for his sonic screwdriver.

"No." Bakura drew the so adorned arm closer to himself.

"Why not?"

"Because if I take it off, Diabound will disappear and we will all fall to our deaths." Bakura shut his eyes again and concentrated on guiding the great beast.

The Doctor, wisely, didn't push the issue. Falling to his death would be a massive inconvenience, and one he doubted he'd regenerate from. Instead he said, with a cheery grin, "Where are we going?"

No reply from the thief. They sat there for a further while before the Doctor sighed, tucked his screwdriver between his teeth so he wouldn't drop it and crawled back down the creature's back, avoiding its wings, and back to Donna.

"Any luck?" his companion shouted over the wind.

"Mrphmph I'll give it another try on the ground," The Doctor said, removing the screwdriver from his mouth halfway through the sentence and replacing it in the pouch.

The rest of the journey passed without incident, with Bakura sat 'up front' in a trancelike state guiding the creature.

About half an hour into the flight, a cluster of large white tents appeared in a green patch – an oasis – in the desert below. Diabound angled towards it, and the sudden change in direction jolted the two passengers.

"Looks like we're coming in to land!" shouted the Doctor over the wind, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, as always.

"I'd appreciate the change of scenery!" Donna shouted back at him.

"Hold on!" Came a gruff shout from the front as the monster's back tilted and the wings began to flap faster, slowing their descent.

"To what?" Donna yelled back at him, sliding down the tilted surface until the Doctor, who'd wedged his hand in the base of the wing joint, caught her hand.

The Diabound touched down relatively softly and Bakura jumped down. The Doctor and Donna slid off the beast's back and it began to disappear, turning into a stream of light that was sucked back into Bakura's Spirit Summoner.

The Doctor looked around their surroundings. They were in a relatively small village – well, more of an encampment – of large tents, haphazardly arranged around a central tent. Bakura ducked into this larger tent, leaving the Doctor and Donna outside.

A few seconds later he poked his head out of the flap. "Well? Are you coming, or not?"

Donna needed no further invitation to get out of the heat. She almost ran into the tent, with the Doctor following at a more sedate pace, still looking around with interest.

It was a lot cooler inside the tent. Bakura was lounging on a pile of cushions, reading something on a sheet of papyrus. Behind him stood a boy, maybe sixteen years of age, holding a wooden mug of water.

Bakura briefly looked up as they entered. And then returned to reading whatever it was, apparently uninterested.

The boy rolled his eyes. "He does this to everyone. My name is Malik, sir. Did he bring you?"

The Doctor grinned. "Hallo, Malik! Oh, nice name... Kind of... sharp on the tongue, yeah? Malik, malik, malik-k-k..." He repeated the boys name several times to himself, enunciating the two syllables. Then he shrugged. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this lovely lady is Donna."

Donna herself looked the boy up and down. He was wearing typical Ancient Egypt wear – a tunic secured at the waist with a length of rope, and sandals. He had shoulder-length platinum blonde hair and his eyes were soft lavender.

She smiled at him, and he grinned back, though slightly nervously.

The Doctor sat down heavily on the pile next to Bakura, giving an interested glance at the papyrus sheet. The bit of it he saw looked to be a map, before Bakura pulled it away and rolled it up.

The white-haired man glanced at the boy. "Leave us."

Malik nodded and left the tent.

"This is nice and cosy," The Doctor said in the silence after he left, stating the obvious as he always did to put people off guard. He patted the pile next to him. "Come on, Donna, come and sit down."

She shook her head. "Nah, I'll stand. Prefer to feel the earth under my feet after all that flying. Never been one for flying."

The Doctor shrugged. "Suit yourself. So! Bakurrrra! The mysterious thief, and magician as well?" He gestured to the armband adorning Bakura's wrist. "Now that we're down on the ground, can I have a look?"

The thief slipped it off and handed it to the Doctor with a dismissive shrug. "Keep it. I have a few already, I don't need any more."

The Doctor pulled the sonic out and it hummed as he passed the blue point of the screwdriver over the device. Then, with an odd puzzled look on his face, he passed the screwdriver over it again.

"This is bizarre... Quite flummoxing, really." He passed the thing to Donna. "Take a look at that."

The device seemed to be just a gold armband, with decorations adorning it and a shape - like an eye - taking the central position on the top of the band. A swept out wing-shape came off the left side of the armband, heavily decorated but with a blank space in the center,

There was also a thin seam running down both sides and she managed to open it, and slip it onto her wrist. "Hey, it's a perfect fit!"

Bakura was watching their examination of the armband with interest. "That's the magic of it – it'll fit whomsoever wears it, from the burliest man to the smallest child. Well... One of the magics, anyway."

The Doctor frowned a little. "So how does it work?"

Bakura shrugged. "Magic. The Priests know, I don't. I just use them."

"But it's just... Just a block of electrum – which is amazing in itself, considering the time period, electrum shouldn't even have been discovered yet – along with trace amounts of... Something the sonic can't identify... But that alone shouldn't make this any more special than, well, anything else."

Donna was still admiring the armband and only caught half of the Doctor's speech. She roamed her fingers over the gold wing-shape on the left side, and then over the eye, which seemed to be looking right at her.

And then the eye flashed gold, once, and the wing shape sprang out, two identical shapes below it until it looked like a spread wing on the side of her arm. "Uh... Doctor..."

Both the Doctor and Bakura looked round. Bakura gaped at her. "That... It shouldn't do that. Not for one untrained in the skill of using it..." There was an almost hungry look in his eyes as he sprang up and inspected the armband on her wrist. "Try and summon something."

The Doctor sprang up, too, and swept the buzzing tip of the screwdriver over the armband. "It's emitting an energy the sonic can't identify..."

Donna tried to open the armband to take it off, but the seam seemed to have disappeared. "Doctor, it won't come off..."

"So summon something!" Bakura almost snarled at her.

"I don't know how!" Donna shouted back at him.

He huffed impatiently. "Imagine as if you're gathering energy within yourself... Let it flow through you and into the summoner, then out into the air."

Donna glanced at the Doctor for confirmation, and he shrugged. "If it'll get it off your arm..."

Donna rolled her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out, then did as Bakura suggested.

She felt... Well, something, flow out of her into the armband, and then it left her entirely, giving her a sense of deep loss.

A chirping cry made her open her eyes, and there in front of her stood a... A hawk? It looked like it had been plated in bronze metal, and it's two eyes were shiny red gemstones, but despite their featurelessness they gave a sense of life and feeling.

It hopped on the spot and looked at her with it's intelligent ruby eyes.

Bakura gave a gasp. "That... That's not possible! No-one has... He does not take sides!"

The hawk chirped and started to glow, with a light so bright it seemed to obscure Donna's world, and then it disappeared back into her armband, filling the viod it's departure had left...

And then the feeling stopped, so abruptly that so did everything else and the red-haired woman collapsed to the floor.

The last thing she heard before falling into black was the Doctor calling her name...

Hello chaps. Sorry for the long long LOOOONG wait, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you did, please leave a little review by pressing that button below.