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‘I’m not stubborn, I’ve just got an insatiable curiosity,’ the Doctor beamed and began to attend to the injured man they had found, who was now laid out on one of the Inn tables.
Arms folded, Peri stalked around mumbling to herself about curiosity killing the cat and regretting it in view of the Doctor’s badge. She had to come to the conclusion she had once again been defeated by the Doctor’s irritating charm.
The man was now sitting up and talking. He sounded particularly drowsy. As if he had been up all night thought Peri to herself.
‘Could...could I have some...something to drink?’ he gasped croakily.
The Inn Keeper was handing over a tankard brimming with ale within seconds.The Doctor noticed his speed. ‘You suddenly seem concerned?’
‘Aye, that’s true. The sooner he’s out of here, the better.’ He took the Doctor aside, arm around his shoulders. ‘Listen, stranger, I ain’t got nothing against you, but you’d do well to take Quinn’s advice. If you stick around him over there for long...well go now, while you’ve got the chance...or you’ll be as cursed as he is.’
Leaving the Doctor with his cryptic phrase, the Inn Keeper shambled away and disappeared into the back of the Inn, making sure the Doctor heard the bolts sliding behind him. He did not want to be followed.
‘Get me to the cottage at the end of the village, will you?’ The injured man supported by Peri had shambled off the high table and was limping across towards the grumpy Gallifreyan.
‘Gladly! Hopefully you’ll be able to shed some light on a few things.’ The Doctor did not bother to offer his assistance, he wanted someone else to do the work for a change.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 itting in a wicker chair, before a roughly covered wooden desk lined on the top with a few volumes, the newly revived man was giving the Doctor a few more details about himself. ‘My name’s Leon…’
Thumbing through a particularly hefty leather bound book, the Doctor took half an interest. ‘Yes, that’s all very nice but…’
‘Doctor! Give the man a chance. If you’d just listen we might just get away from here a bit quicker.’ Peri was quick to rebuke the Doctor.
Leon was humbled for a while even though he had no reason to feel small. ‘I’m sorry, I...I didn’t mean to detain you…’
Peri sat beside him and patted his head. ‘No, no, it’s me who’s too impatient and by the looks of it you need some company.’
‘No one in the village seems to understand...I tried to tell them but it hardened them even further against me. I’m as much an outcast as you are…’
‘And we outcasts should stick together, hmmm?’ ended the Doctor, before dropping back into deep thought as he carefully examined the contents of the book he was holding.
Peri was getting more and more puzzled in the space of a few words from Leon. ‘What don’t they understand?’ she asked apprehensively.
‘Im suffering from...from Ly…’ He suddenly corrected himself and the Doctor noticed the change of tone in his voice; the careful deliberation over the next words he was about to speak. ‘From some form of mental illness.’
Turning the next page over in the heavy volume the Doctor spun on his heel and slammed the book shut with such a bang to make Peri start.
‘Lycanthropy?’ The word sounded like a bad taste in the Time Lord’s mouth. ‘That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it, Leon?’
Peri shook her head bemused: ‘Lycanthropy, what’s that?’ Her hand had for some reason detached itself from Leon’s.
The Doctor made the answer sound like an accusation. ‘He thinks he’s a werewolf, isn’t that right, Leon?’
Leon put his head in his hands and began to sob, bitterly. ‘Yes...yes...but I don’t only think I am, I know I am!’ He turned a tear streaked-face towards the Doctor, with Peri now securely at his side, holding onto him tightly. ‘Last night, I bit out the throat of one of Quinn’s men. Marlok pursed me...and you found me.’
Nodding, the Doctor began to piece together the situation. ‘That’s why Marlok gave up the pursuit, dawn had broken, you had changed back and with me around he couldn’t dispose of a human being.’
‘I wish...I wish he had. It’s a terrible curse. I want to die!’
‘That’s wild talk!’ intoned Peri, ‘I can’t believe any of this, it’s like some kinda weird horror movie...werewolves just can’t exist..they can’t..’ Taking all this in was very difficult.
‘Never close your mind to the impossible, Peri.’ growled the Doctor. He waved the volume he was holding under Peri’s nose. ‘It’s all in here anyway. You make out a good case, Leon and in such detail for a diary. Either you are a werewolf or a good fictionalist,’ the Doctor sucked in his teeth, ‘and I don’t think it’s the latter...there’s just too many coincidences for that.’
‘Think what you like, Doctor, only I know it’s true.’
Peri had warmed to Leon anew; he was utterly convincing and he seemed to have a conviction, a resolve that no one was going to deter him from. Her horror had melted away because she could see the terrible burden Leon carried with him. ‘I believe you, Leon.’ She advanced upon him and once again sat at his side.
‘Thank you. I wanted to hear those words for a long time…’
The Doctor surveyed the scene with his usual methodical way. ‘We’ve established the proof of your words but now we’ve got to find away of solving your problem, some hope, some cure.’
The Time Lord sounded defeated, in his heart of hearts he knew that there was only one way to cure the werewolf’s curse. He anticipated Leon’s answer.
‘There is only one answer, Doctor - death!’
The word left Peri and the Doctor more uncomfortable than comfortable.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 he one person those words left more comfortable was Marlok. He sat in the middle of an anachronism at the centre of the technology that was very much out of place in the early nineteenth century. Its presence posed more questions than gave answers.
The small man sat hunched over a small brilliantly white console, covered in innumerable dials and knobs all flickering and clicking in perfect unison; surrounding a tiny mesh loud speaker from which was issuing forth the words Marlok wanted to hear. At last he now had the evidence he needed to dispose of Leon and rid the village of the curse…
END OF PART ONE
written by
DARREN FIELD
copyright 2009
  
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