The Firemaker

Dear Diary,

Or, rather: Dear me, where to start?

First, as the savages converged upon us, Kal, the fellow who struck me, came forward with the body of Hur and accused our old friend Za of murdering her, even producing Za’s stone knife as evidence.

I suspected that Kal had murdered her himself, in return for freeing us, but how to prove it to these simple creatures? Quickly, I shifted into Sherlock Holmes mode (I must say, I think I would have made Sir Arthur rather proud). I explained that if Za had killed the old woman, the stone would show what it had done, but it did not. I then grabbed Kal’s stone knife, still covered in blood, and showed it to the assembled mob, explaining that here was a stone that did show what it had done. Seizing the momentum, I persuaded Chesterton to join me in casting stones at Za and driving him out. This naturally inspired their mob mentality to join us in driving him out and banishing him from the tribe. Elementary. Hmph.

We were immediately rewarded for our efforts by our dear friend Za by his tossing us back into the Cave of Skulls to make fire for him. (Again, it never pays to involve oneself with these matters!)

Back at the cave, Chesterton enlisted Miss Wright and Susan to help him in building a fire. Za entered just in time to see him in the act. He immediately assumed Chesterton to be our leader because in his tribe the fire maker was the leader. Surprisingly, Chesterton deferred to me, stating that I was their leader. (Quite right, of course.)

I explained to Za that, in our tribe, the fire maker was the least important person (I couldn’t resist deflating Chesterton a bit) because we could all make fire. He then rather worryingly detailed the tribe’s thoughts about us. They believed us to be from the Tribe of the Orb (the sun, I presume) and that, when we return to him upon the Stone of Death, the tribe will once again have fire.

Chesterton again surprised us by managing to ignite the twigs and starting a fire. Unfortunately, at that time one of the other savages rushed in, apparently ready to return us to the Orb himself. Luckily, Za engaged him, and, after winning advantage, dealt the intruder a rather gruesome killing blow.

Chesterton gave Za a torch to take to his tribe in the hopes that now that they had fire, we would be released. This proved to be rather naïve, however, as Za swanned off hunting and left us trapped in the cave. He returned with meat and fruit and water, explaining that he did not believe we came from the Orb but merely believed we had come from a tribe on the other side of the mountain. Nonetheless, he planned to keep us here that we would be a constant source for fire.

When he had left us alone, Susan attempted to amuse us by setting one of the skulls on a lit torch. What happened next I cannot explain. Chesterton actually developed an inspired escape plan. We created four torches and placed skulls atop them all. We drew the tribes attention and then hid. When they saw the flaming skulls, they assumed we had died and gone back to the Orb, and we snuck away.

Our ruse worked for a short time, but once in the dark woods we heard them close on our heels. We managed to reach the TARDIS without a second to spare, and I de-materialised immediately.

Which brings us to our current situation. In my haste, I neglected to throw the Fast Return Switch which would have taken us back to Earth. As such, since I was never able to determine our location during our visit to that time, I am unable to determine where we have arrived. Or where we will go from here.

For now, we could be anywhere in all of space and time. It is of some small comfort, however, that the radiation levels are reading normal.

 

Based upon the teleplay by Anthony Coburn, first broadcast on BBC 14th December, 1963