A surprise attack

Their latest destination was the English countryside. Sara walked forwards slowly, keeping her eyes and ears peeled as she looked around the sparse forest. The full moon loomed overhead.

She gripped her staff tightly in one hand. While technically there might be better weapons, this one still came the easiest to her. Some kind of magical beastie had been detected in this time and place, and the locals had mentioned some strange figure running around the woods.

She took a step forwards; a twig snapped, and she froze.

A split second later and Mick was pointing a flamethrower at her.

"Just me," Sara whispered.

"Oh," Mick said. He grumbled vaguely. "Boring."

They fell silent suddenly, listening out. If there was anything out there...

Leaves rustled; Sara tensed, lifting her staff just in case. She had to be ready. If she squinted she could see... something, a vague shape, a shadow, just past a layer of bushes. She took a slow, careful step forwards-

Mick blasted his flamethrower. Sara jumped back, taking in a deep breath of suddenly scalding air.

The shadow skittered away, only a few leaves left smoking, casting a little more light to go along with Sara's ruined night vision.

"Mick!" Sara said.

"It moved," Mick said. "I shot it. You're welcome."

"You didn't hit anything!" Sara said. "And for that matter you probably just showed it where we are."

Mick paused. Then he swung his flamethrower around. Sara twirled her staff experimentally.

Something lunged out of the bushes, lightning-fast; it aimed right for Sara, and she felt arms, felt a flash of something sharp-

"Don't you dare use that damn thing!" Sara just about managed to yell to Mick.

She wrestled for a moment in the darkness, hands getting purchase on... huh, smooth skin. No fur, no scales, far from any normal monster. She pushed, hands skating up to something... softer, rounder.

The creature staggered away from her. She blinked, having almost a whole second to realise wait, that wasn't a monster, that was... human? A woman. A... Sara thought back to how she'd felt to touch... well she knew that feeling well enough, a rather naked woman.

She'd tried to cut back on doing that since Ava, she swore.

And the moment the woman was a step away, there was a burst of flame, a scream that lasted a handful of seconds, and the woman fell to the forest floor.

"Got it," Mick said, this time triumphant.

"Got her," Sara said. "That wasn't a monster. That was..."

She paused. The smoking remains on the ground were... dissolving, a few faint sparkles vanishing into the night. Ok, so it had only looked like a naked woman. And felt it. And... oh who cared?

Would've been nice to actually capture it, but being attacked didn't leave much room. Sara sighed.

Idly she scratched her arm, blinking to feel blood. Damn it, the women must have scratched her. She sighed and turned around.

"Come on Mick," she said. "Back to the Waverider. Let's see if the change has gone."

Idly, she wandered back to the timeship. All in all, she felt that had gone pretty well.