Mah-jong

The two Gallifreyans had started to move towards the gap when something made them stop - a sound. A growling, marling, roaring sort of sound. It was alien but, the Doctor thought, somehow not quite right. As if something was trying too hard to be noisy and frightening.

Through the gap came a scaly, reptilian creature on four stumpy legs. Flame red all over, it had a big wide mouth, a scaly mane, and huge rolling eyes. A wisp of smoke curled out through one nostril.

'What is it?‘

The Doctor stared hard. 'A reptile of some sort. Look at that tail...‘ Something at the back of his mind clicked. 'It‘s a dragon. A red dragon.‘

The dragon pawed at the ground - but stayed where it was.

It was as if something was stopping it getting into the square arena where the Doctor and Millennia were standing.

Or it was there to stop them getting out.

Swallowing hard, Millennia opted to ignore the dragon and instead walked over to the wall of blocks. Each block was slightly wider than she was tall and they were lying flat, two high. She could not quite reach the top.

'Doctor, they‘re made of something hard but not artificial.‘ The Doctor was beside her in an instant, mumbling to himself.

'We‘re here for a reason ... we can‘t get out despite the gap because someone wants us to stay here.‘

'The dragon?‘

'Oh no, no. I shouldn‘t think he can think for himself.‘ The Doctor tapped the tiles. 'Bone,‘ he said after a moment. 'Ivory to be precise.‘

'Doctor, look!‘

One of the tiles near the dragon lifted and then came down in the centre of the arena. A second later another followed, then another. Something was dismantling the wall and dropping the blocks near the Doctor and Millennia.

The Doctor ran to the nearest one and peered over the top of it.

'It has markings on, Millennia. See there? And there?‘

Millennia was looking at another block. 'This one is covered in roundels.‘

The Doctor was tracing the scratchy outline of the markings on his. They made no sense. He crossed to another, which showed four green lines and the number 4 in the corner.

'How many roundels?‘ he called suddenly.

'Err... five.‘

'Is there a number 5 in the top left corner?‘

'Yes. Yes there is!‘ Millennia called back. 'Is it important?‘

The Doctor crouched atop the block with the four lines on it.

'Millennia, where were we headed?‘

She shrugged. 'The realm of one of the Great Old Ones.‘

'The Toymakers! Yes, yes, that‘s where we were going, my dear. And, if I‘m not much mistaken, these are tiles in a giant game of some sort.‘

'It is called mah-jong,‘ said the dragon from the rapidly diminishing corner, ducking slightly as another tile was picked up and discarded.

***

Divided Loyalties, Round 2, Chapter 2