The Doctor opened the door of the blue box as fast as he could to bring his uncontious wife inside.
'Bed, now, in the control room!' he shouted, and the TARDIS immediately materialized a bed next to the chair by the fence. He carried River on it, and checked her lifesigns: her hearts beat very fast, and her breathing was close to hyperventillation. It worried him, but along the long years he had no time to analyze her very special metabolism, and he had no idea what she needed at the moment: sucrose or cold water or volitle salt or a kiss – no, he dismissed that idea, it worked only in fairytales. In his desperate thinking he just sat down next to her and held her hand and brushed her hair.
'River, honey, wake up, you're safe now, you're in the TARDIS.' he whispered in low voice, as calm as he could. He'd never seen his wife so naked, so weak. Just once, when she saved his life...
'Honey, wake up, don't do this to me, it's quite a bad joke.' he tried again, but there was no response: only her heartbeats went more calm, and her breathing slowed down to normal. It is a result, however, he thought, but wasn't satisfied at all. He stood up to bring fresh water for her, when a weak mourning was heard from her direction. He jumped back to her, and grabbed her hand.
'River? Are you okay?' he asked hurriedly, but the only answer he got was a frown and an other mourn.
'River? What happened? What did you see? Speak to me.' he tried again, and faked a smile at her as she stirred and blinked weakly.
'Doctor?' she whispered, and he kissed her hand affectionately.
'I'm here, dear, and I don't let you go.' he was happy to hear her voice again, and tried to comfort her as well as he could. She rolled her head to one side from the other, and looked around through misty eyes.
'Where am I?' she asked swallowing. He giggled a bit.
'In the TARDIS, safe now.'
'There's no bed in the control room.' she protested and tried to sit up, but the Doctor pushed her back.
'Hush, there is now. Can I bring you something? A cup of water?' he asked, excited now for doing something for her. She nodded, and closed her eyes again. He jumped up and ran to the kitchen and filled a glass with pure clear water. He hurried back to her, and saw she was sitting in the bed when he arrived.
'You shoulnd't...'
'Shut up.' River cut him off and took the water from him and drank it. He smirked: she was the woman he married, again. He sat down on the bed, next to her, and looked at her now seriously, searching her eyes for any information he could get about what she saw in the cave. It was so difficult: her eyes were young, never the same age he saw them before – it was hard to get along with them. Yes, her eyes were her most honest parts: they were sad and full of pain, and he knew why, he knew exactly. But now, they were only those two beautiful blue berylls, filled with angst, which made him nervous and angry at the same time. He hated when he saw anything else in her eyes than love and happiness. He frowned.
'How did you mean, you saw Death in the cave?' he asked as gently as he could. The horror in her eyes lit up with new force, but it was only a tithe of her fright before. She swallowed hard, and turned away.
'I...' she began but failed to continue. He waited patiently till she raised her head again.
'I did not saw it.' she went on 'I just sensed it.' she spinned to face the Doctor. 'But it was far more than just a feeling. I knew it was there. Death was there.' she swallowed and shook her head, smiling bitterly to herself. 'You know the legend. The legend of the Princess of Death.' she looked at him again. He nodded and began to tell the story.
'When princess Marcella was kidnapped by a worm and locked inside a hill, and he made her to his wife. She weeped and asked for her death, and a demon, who called himself only "Death" appeared to her in the middle of night, and gave her a choise: be locked inside the hill for a thousand years of shame with the worm, or follow him out to the light again, and be his servant to calm people on their deathbed to make it easier for them to accept the calling of him. She chose the second one, believing she could do something good for the people who were in need, but she was misguided: the demon commanded her to talk people to give up when they felt weary or sick, and when she protested, he condemned her to live as a shadow in the darkness in the chambers of the dying, every word of peace falling from her mouth like a blood-curdling shriek, to paralyse them to death from fear.'
'Yes.' she nodded. 'I think I heard the Princess of Death.' she said affirmed, but the fear in her eyes was there again, like a flame of ice-cold fire. For a moment he sat stunned, but then he shook his head and stood up smiling nervously.
'It's just a story, a fairytale to make children fear in the dark, it's only a legend.' he paced back and forth in front of the bed. She nodded.
'As all we are.' she said seriously, and stood up in his way to stop him pacing. 'Every tale I heard, every legend I learnt of, they were true, you proved me that!' she grabbed his arm. 'Honestly, Doctor, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so. And if it's true, that girl needs your help.'
'Even if she existed somewhere in time and space, she's cursed, so how could I help her?!' he shouted edgily. She stepped back, stunned at him, like she hadn't seen this part of him before – like she always did when she didn't want to accept her husband didn't want to help. She exhaled disbelievingly, and sat back on the bed. He got a glimps of her gaze, and knew he did something wrong. He squeezed his brow with his hand and sighed heavily, and sat down next to her. He sighed again, and looked at her hurt face and knew he had to do something for her.
'Tell me about the demon.' he said tiredly, and saw the suspection on her face as she opened her mouth slowly.
'The story only tells it appeared in the middle of the night, and was never seen on daylight, as the girl after their agreement. It says it was huge and black with gloving eyes and long nails, and its voice was like storm and stream at the same time. It had the power to unlock the cave, so it had some kind of might, or however you call it. It's like...'
'Thronocray.' he cut her off. 'They can move through walls because of their very low molecule density, but doesn't go on any kind of light; it would excite their molecules and induce fragmentation of their bodies. Their eyes are gloving by fluorescence in the dark, and to talk they create molecular storms inside of their body – it's noise is terrible, worse than the TARDIS on a hysterical day (sorry, dear), and the only cause they still exist is that they can siphon off the density of anything: creations or objects, it doesn't matter to them. There's a small chance it couldn't finish the process because of something disturbed it, so the girl looks like a thronocray, but doesn't function like one. We have to find out.' he began to pace confidently towards the door. When he realized she wasn't following, he turned back and took two steps back towards her.
'What's the matter, River? Aren't you coming?' he asked frowning and searching her face cautiously. She dropped her eyes.
'I...' she began. 'I can't go back there. It's...' she raised her head '...like someone would've died in that cave. I'm sorry...' she shook her head frightened and sadly. The Doctor hurried back to her with long steps, and threw his arms around her and hugged her tight.
'If you don't want to come back, you don't have to.' he kissed her forehead gently. 'But you want to help, don't you?' he asked, and she nodded. 'Go and find out what's the connection between the girl and the seismical activity. I want to know everything which can be found in every library in the universe – no. Forget.' he came to realization. 'No libraries. Go and get your friend, the purple one. Get infromation out of him and tell me. Right?' he held her by her shoulder, and looked deep into her eyes. 'Don't be scared, River Song, you're the bravest woman I've ever seen. Remember this.' he gave her an other kiss on her forehead, and squeezed her hands. She remembered him to her mother so much right at the moment... Amy Pond, the girl who waited... She was afraid, lot of times, but she'd got him, and her beloved Rory, and they always protected her. He would protect River to his last breath, he knew that. But know he needed her to focus.
'Right.' he let go of her hands. 'You'll do this for me, won't you?'
When she nodded, he gave her a bravening smile, and stepped back.
'See you in two hours back here.' She nodded, and disappeared with a lightning of the vortex manipulator. And he stayed alone with the soul of a deadly princess in a cave only six hundred meters afar.