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C’rizz’s chitin feet clanked on the hard TARDIS floor. He thought he heard another, softer sound pattering, but hearing a weird noise in the TARDIS, especially this far in the corridors wasn’t anything special. He only paid attention out of curiosity that it might reveal what was in some of these rooms he hadn’t been shown yet, as he wouldn’t just barge in uninvited.
He was looking at a distant door, wondering if he’d eventually know what was behind them all, when in his periphery a shape shot across the intersection at the end of the hallway. He moved his attention to it just quickly enough to see a worm-like black shape go behind the bend in the wall. His gait became more cautious as he went after it. If there was someone else around he may have tried not to change colour a little in trepidation. He could hear and feel the vibrations of it moving in erratic ways, thumping and sliding on the ground.
For a few seconds after he turned the corner he was able to watch the small, mostly black, fuzzy creature roll over the floor. Then its eyes met his and it suddenly flipped round and stood tall on its four legs. C’rizz jumped and half covered himself behind the wall, but kept his eyes keenly on the creature. The scrunched up face, show of teeth, and unpleasant hissing noise was an almost certain indication that it wasn’t friendly. As he continued to stare, the thing backed away, getting lower and lower to the ground until it was flat against it in a corner, rumbling at him.
That seemed like a sign it wasn’t going to attack, so he backed away himself till he was some ways down the other end of that section of hallway. Then he turned and ran to try and find someone.
“Charllote- uh Charley!” He yelled, without any sense she’d be nearby but yelling peoples names in the TARDIS seemed to just work either way. He got a few twists and turns closer to the console before Charley’s voice returned. “C’rizz? What’s wrong?”.
He slowed his pace as he heard Charley walk down to meet him.
When he saw her he responded with a serious expression “There’s an animal in the TARDIS”
Charley looked far less alarmed at this revelation. “Is there a bug in your room again?”
“No, no it was this big,” He gestured with his hands “and it was fuzzy, or spiky, with massive eyes.”
“Well I certainly hope that isn’t a bug. Where did you see it?” Rather than scared, Charley looked ready to walk off and find it already.
“Further down the corridors, near the kitchens almost- Wait, shouldn’t we tell The Doctor about this before we go after it?” Charley had started to walk past him.
“And do you know where The Doctor is?” She said as she heard C’rizz lagging behind her.
“He went outside”
“Outside where exactly?”
“…” they both knew that The Doctor hadn’t explained where he was going or why. He had tried to in a way but they both hadn't really understood it. “If I get devoured by a small but deadly beast because of you I’ll be very upset, I won’t leave you any of my stuff.” He quickly caught up with her.
“What belongings of yours could I possibly want?”
“I don’t know, maybe you want to upgrade your wardrobe”
“You’re wearing a hooded jumper with a stain on it”
C’rizz looked down at the not quite faded stain. “Obviously I don’t mean this! If I got devoured right now this jumper would be completely ruined, that’s just ridiculous” He played it up by shaking his head at her, but before she could fire back C’rizz suddenly stopped.
His antenna twitched, sending vibrations of sound Charley couldn’t even hear yet. “It’s nearby, moving. I think…It’s getting closer”.
They both waited in anticipation. Soon Charley could hear it as well, a small pitter patter, which wasn’t very scary but can’t be too sure. Before it made its way into view it made a new sound.
“Merow!”
“What…” said Charley, sounding as if she might laugh.
“It didn’t make that noise before- there it is!” C’rizz pointed as a fluffy black cat turned the corner. Charley couldn’t help herself but to laugh, even as she felt bad for the creature that had seemed to stop and stare at C’rizz in fear.
“C’rizz, that’s just a cat! They’re quite safe”
C’rizz went a shade paler with embarrassment “Well, I can’t be expected to know that…”
Charley put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter and cleared her throat. “It’s ok puss puss, come here” she had crouched down on the floor trying to coax the cat over, but it only glanced at her briefly before looking back at C’rizz. “You’re scaring it, I think it’s your eyes. Don’t stare at the cat so much”
C’rizz looked at Charley instead and got a bit lower to the ground himself “What should we do with it?”
“It looks like it has a collar so we must find out who owns it and take it back before The TARDIS takes off again.”
“Oh, it’s a domesticated animal?” He glanced at it again curious about its purpose but remembered not to look at it for too long.
“Yes, people keep them for mousing, and as pets” The cat didn’t move any closer despite Charley’s efforts. “How about you go to the kitchen and find some meat to lure it with, and maybe while you’re gone I can earn its trust a little better”
“Oh, I can see that I’m not wanted” C’rizz said sarcastically before getting up carefully and making his way to the kitchen.
He returned with something called ham, which from what he could tell was probably made from an animal. Charley had managed to get closer to the car without it running away and it looked a fair bit less frightened. Unfortunately it hissed as soon as C’rizz got too close, even though he’d tried to barely look at the thing.
“I think it’s scared because of your face,” Charley said, taking the packet of ham from him.
“Thanks” C’rizz sat behind Charley, facing the wall so him and the cat could not make eye contact.
“What I mean is, you’re very unfamiliar looking, you look like, well, another animal, not a human like the cat is used to. It’s just like how you were scared of it before you knew what it was” she threw the ham out for the cat which it was very receptive to. “You could potentially let it know that you’re safe as well. Here,” she handed C’rizz the packet of ham.
He got up into a crouch position no longer hiding and threw a small piece of ham at the cat. Amazingly it was greedy enough to ignore C’rizz now and just eat. He threw the next piece closer to Charley and the cat moved closer. He continued this until Charley was able to comfortably stroke the cat from its head to its tail, and when it wasn’t eating, it pushed its head into Charley's legs and almost looked like it was smiling.
Charley picked the animal up which it accepted surprisingly well. “Alright, now we should head out of here right away so the poor thing doesn’t get lost in the TARDIS again”
“Maybe it wasn’t lost, maybe it was just curious?” They began walking briskly to the console room.
“You wouldn’t know this, C’rizz, but there’s a saying we have, on earth, that curiosity killed the cat”
“That’s bleak. This one seems fine though.”
“We got there just in time” The cat was getting restless so she repositioned it in her arms and started to walk faster again.
Soon they were in the console room and Charley tasked C’rizz with finding a box to put the cat in because it was getting restless. Before he could find anything suitable however, the TARDIS door opened and the cat made a sudden dash out of Charley's arms.
“No!” She yelled and started to run after it, before she saw The Doctor appear in the doorway and scoop the cat up.
“Ah, you found it! Good work you two.” He said, not even looking at his dumbfounded friends staring at him from the console. “I’ll be right back.” He announced, then swung out the door again taking the cat with him.
Once the door closed the two left behind companions turned to each other to confirm their mutual confusion. You couldn’t even be surprised with that man anymore.