"Sorry I took so long," the Doctor huffed as he struggled up to the TARDIS.

"Wha...?" He had obviously awakened her.

"Now," he said, fumbling for his key, "I can follow you." The woman pushed herself to her feet as the Doctor opened the door. "Come in."

The woman followed him in and surveyed the control room. No expressions lighted on her face until she saw the Couch of Indolence. Most newcomers to the TARDIS had difficulty accepting its interior size, but this didn't seem to bother her. The recliner, however, merited serious investigation. The Doctor didn't see this, though, because he'd focused his attention on setting the TARDIS to follow her trail.

"Animal skin?" she asked, caressing the maroon surface.

"No, it's plastic." He didn't look up.

"What's it for?"

"You sit in it."

"I knew that," she said quietly, in a tone of discovery. She slithered over the arm and settled lithely into the usual reclining position. She liked the feel of the smooth surface. She began rubbing her shoulders back and forth against the recliner. Soon her whole body moved slowly against the imitation leather. Her eyes closed over an expression of fenceless ecstacy. The Doctor glanced up and watched this "dance." Her movements were completely sensual, but fully lacking in sexuality.

"She must be a virgin," the Doctor mumbled quietly to himself. He walked over and touched her arm.

Her eyes popped open. "Excuse me," she blurted. "I forgot to ask."

"It's O. K.," he grinned. "I'm ready to follow you. By the way, what's your name?"

"Vorlene," she replied, exiting the Couch of Indolence as she had entered, over the arm. When she stood her body brushed the edges of the Doctor's coat. She looked up into his face. "What's yours?"

"Uh...I'm the Doctor," he stammered, uncomfortable with the proximity of such a sensuous body.

"Thitocdor," she repeated. "Strange names from a strange world."

The Doctor finally had the sense to back away a step. "So, Vorlene, where are we going?"

"Mavor," she said, looking past him.

"Where's that?"

"Where have you been?"

The Doctor had opened his mouth to answer before he realized she wasn't talking to him at all. He turned and saw the tufted, blue and white animal walking through the TARDIS' open door. "This...cat...is yours?"

"Cat?" Vorlene asked without looking away from Mavor. "This is a gorral."

"This gorral is yours?" the Doctor recovered quickly.

"No. I mean...." Vorlene gasped in frustration at her own confusion. "I guess so. Nobody else will spend time with it."

"It followed Romana around earlier today. That's how I guessed I'd meet a woman."

"Romana?"

Hearing rather than speaking the name roused the Doctor to a more immediate problem. He dashed out the door. "Romana," he called.

"Thitocdor, who is Romana?" Vorlene asked.

The Doctor scanned the edge of the forest. "Romana," he called again. "She was supposed to meet me here at sundown. The gorral left with her. Now it's back without her."

"Who is Romana?" Vorlene insisted.

"My companion."

"Your mate?"

"No." The Doctor paused, wondering how to answer such a question to a virgin. "She travels with me, helps me with things. She was helping me look for you. I really thought she'd find you. I sent her into the forest."

"Into the forest?" Vorlene's tone spoke a new concern.

"That's where the gorral came from. I figured it lived there. Since it seemed to know and accept people, I deduced that any people on the planet would live in the forest."

"You sent Romana into the forest?"

"Is she in danger? Are there animals there that will hurt her?" The Doctor fought back some very real fears.

"No animals here will hurt you. Animals in other times will, but not here. At least not intentionally."

"What's the problem then?"

"There are many burrowing animals in the forest. In the darkness under the trees you might not see a hole. Stepping into one could hurt you quite badly."

"Then maybe she's hurt. Could the gorral lead us to her?"

Vorlene looked at Mavor with puzzlement. "Where's Romana?" she asked it. It stared back, dumbly.

"I have an idea," the Doctor said, darting deeper into the TARDIS. Hecame out over a minute later carrying the blouse Romana had wornduring their brief stay at Gallifrey. He walked over to a wall of the controlroom, pulled open a door, and began poking around inside the cupboardthus revealed.

"These plastics, they grow like this in your world?" Vorlene asked.

"Plastics?" the Doctor queried. He looked over at Vorlene and understood. "Oh. No, we make them."

"With tools?"

"Yes. You're very bright."

Vorlene looked at herself quizzically. Then she shrugged her shoulders in resignation to her ignorance. "Could you show me one of these tools?"

The Doctor was about to answer impatiently when he remembered the Swiss army knife in his pocket. He spent nearly fifteen seconds digging around in three pockets before he found it. He passed it to her and resumed rummaging through the open cupboard.

Vorlene wandered toward the door of the TARDIS fingering the knife. Meanwhile the Doctor found the torch he'd been looking for and brushed past her toward the door where Mavor waited. He squatted down and held the blouse up to the animal's nose. "Romana," he said. "Can you find Romana?"

The gorral started briskly down the hill toward the forest. "Come," the Doctor called back, starting after it.

"But it's dark in the forest," Vorlene objected, stepping through the door of the TARDIS.

The Doctor didn't answer, but switched on the torch in his hand. Vorlene quickly caught up with him and together they followed Mavor into the woods.

Cordar dropped an instrument and two computer blocks back into his box. "What a mess," he complained. "The Doctor is with the woman so I can't get her. I can't find the cube and Romana isn't about to help. Anyway she's out for the night."

He paused to examine the night outside on his monitor. The sight seemed to inspire him. He worked the trackball until he found a location well away from the TARDIS, but next to a stream. He reconnected the cables Romana had pulled apart, dragged her body back inside the panels, and entered a few commands in his computer. Romana's body faded from sight.

The Doctor stopped and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. The gorral circled impatiently ahead of them. Vorlene held the knife up to the Doctor. "Can you show me how this works?" she asked.

The Doctor took the knife, looked it over for a moment and pulled out the scissors. He pulled up a lock of Vorlene's hair, snipped off about an inch, and said, "This is how we cut the hair off animals."

"With that?"

"With a tool like this only much larger."

Vorlene rubbed the lock which the Doctor still held between his fingers. "You should keep this," she blurted. "Then you'll always have a piece of me."

The Doctor smiled and started out after the gorral.

The two reached the site of Romana's mishap a few seconds behind Mavor. The ground around the hole clearly marked her struggles. The Doctor shined his torch around looking for other clues. He found the tracks of the large blue animal that had so frightened his companion. "What's this?" he asked Vorlene. He had noticed the long claw marks and they frightened him seriously.

Vorlene looked where he pointed. "Oh," she spoke lightly. "The Nana was here. Maybe it heard Romana and came to see her."

"Or eat her."

"No. Nothing in the forest will hurt you. No animals, that is. Not intentially, anyway."

"Then how did Romana disappear?"

"Maybe she got her foot free and walked on?" Vorlene suggested.

"If her foot was hurt she would have returned to the TARDIS for help," the Doctor countered. "Anyway, her tracks lead into the hole, but not away from it."

Vorlene looked and agreed.

"Might she have ridden this Nana out of the forest?"

"No," Vorlene answered assuredly. "Nana doesn't like to carry his own weight. He wouldn't carry someone else's."

"So, Romana's tr