"Hmmmm... This wasn't here before..."
The Doctor stepped out onto a Roman street which moments before had been steaming marsh land.
"What? Where are we?" I asked. The second time in as many hours that the Tardis had landed in the wrong place, I was beginning to get annoyed.
"I think we might be - woah!" The Doctor was suddenly knocked off his feet and landed with a crunch on the floor outside the Tardis.
"Doctor! Are you ok?" I shouted, running to the door to see what had happened.
"owww" the Doctor groaned.
"Oh sir I am so sorry!" Squeaked a young girl, quickly getting off of the Doctor and helping him up. "I did not see you there, it was like you appeared out of no where."
She was a young girl, can't have been much more than ten. She had light coloured hair which was cropped short and was slightly disheveled after the collision with the Doctor. She had big blue eyes and large red lips turned upwards in a worried smile, no doubt hoping that we wouldn't report her to her mistress for running. She was wearing a simple grey dress, tightened around her small waist with a red sash. She had been carrying a wicker tray which was now on the floor, the contents of glass bottles and jars rolling around on the floor which she now was attempting to pick up before they became lost.
"That's ok, my fault completely! I do it a lot!" The Doctor said, brushing himself down. "I'm the Doctor, who are you? And why are you in such a rush?"
"My name is Apulia, and I forgot my Lady's make up when she went to the baths so had to go back and get it before I get into trouble." She said standing up for the first time. She was quite tall and skinny but not lanky,
"Your Lady?"
"Yes, I am a slave, and I am going to get such a beating if I don't get it to her on time!"
"Come on then young Apulia, we shall help you get there!" The Doctor said, helping to pick up the items that the young girl had dropped.
"Really? Oh thank you Senor!" She said gratefully and we set off down the street, following the young girl as she wound her way through the busy streets.
"So where are we headed then Apulia?" I asked as I slipped my arm through hers in order to not lose her in the crowd.
"Why the Bathhouse of course! Why else would you be visiting Aquae Sulis? People come from all over the Empire to take the healing waters of Sulis Minerva. Only there are a few problems as the Great Bath is undergoing maintenance right now. The wooden roof was starting to rot so they are building a new stone one now. Belator says it will never work because the Romans are making it too big. But I think it will. They are using local stone masons to build it and Sulis will not let them fail."
We had reached a large stone building and Apulia made straight for the entrance.
"Apulia!" The guard shouted. "Your mistress is not best pleased with you. You better get in quick!"
Apulia squeaked and dashed inside, reappearing to gesture to the Doctor "come on!"
The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the guard, "Imperial stone mason inspectors, from Rome itself!"
The guard eyed the Doctor suspiciously "and partner." He quickly added gesturing at me, I smiled in response.
He waved us through and we entered the Roman Baths.
Apulia popped up again from beyond a door way: "I need to find my Mistress, but you can go to the spa or something...?"
The Doctor smiled and glanced towards the soldier on the door, "I think I'll go take a look at these stone masons."
He wondered out of the door after Apulia.
"The Great Bath is that way" Apulia pointed, "I'm going to find my mistress at the temple, hopefully see you in a bit though" she smiled and skitted around the corner and the Doctor wondered off to the left towards the sounds of hammering and shouting, leaving me to follow in his wake. We entered a vast room with a huge empty bath taking up most of the space. Alcoves lined the walls, filled with tools or benches and tables, pushed back to make more space. Scaffolding spanned the length of the room, and looking up you could see that at the moment it was half open to the sky, the rest being covered by a wooden ceiling which was slowly being dismantled.
"Hey! This area is off limits to bathers and worshippers!" Shouted one man from the scaffold.
The Doctor waved his psychic paper. "Imperial stone inspector from Rome! You can call me the Doctor, what have we here then?" he said attempting to get a better look at the dismantled roof.
The man clambered down the scaffold and jumped to the floor. He was young, possibly early twenties, his short black hair was covered with dust from the sandstone he was working with. He was dressed in a simple woollen smock with a leather apron and leather gauntlets on his wrists, his sandals were of the Roman style, worn and slightly too big for him, giving the idea that they might have belonged to an older brother or his father at one time. He had a mason's belt through which he had pushed a hammer and chisel and to which a small bag was tied by leather throngs. He started absent-mindedly twiddling with these thongs as he went up to address the Doctor.
"Sulinus, Senior, I didn't think we were getting an inspection for a while?"
"Ah but this one is a surprise inspection!" The Doctor grinned. "So... what are you up to then?" he said beginning to wonder around not waiting for Sulinus to reply.
"We're replacing the wooden roof that was earlier erected as the hot water and steam has made it start to rot."
"Well that doesn't seem very clever" I scoffed.
"Well it worked fine for the first 200 or so years! But High Priest Gius Calpernicus has declared that a new roof of stone be built to further the magnificence of the Baths." Sulinus said defensively.
"And how long is that going to take you then?" The Doctor asked from down the room.
"Well, we need to reinforce all the pilars see? And thats gonna take a while... and the actual roof is made of tiles and we ain't tilers see" Said another mason coming up, wiping dust from his hands on his leather apron.
"Yeah, but I talked to Calpernicus and he might be getting us a deal to mix the mortar" Butted in Sulinus.
"Oh is he now!" Grumbled Brucius, "We don't need no more deals for simply making mortar. We are master craftsmen!"
"You'll have to excuse my father, Senior," Sulinus said apologetically to the Doctor. Now Sulinus had pointed it out it was easy to see the family resemblance between the two men underneath all the dust and grim. Brucius stood half a head shorter than his son but supported the same broad shoulders and muscular arms,which he had folded as he approached his son. "Dad, I don't mind doing the extra bit of work, I mean it's not like we need the money, but I just like to be part of the history. This is going to be a magnificent building when it is finished and I like that I was a part of it. We have a special mortar mix that we use, lime stone with added bits to help increase the strength!" He added, directed to the Doctor.
"So how are you planning on building the roof?" I asked.
The Doctor at this point had wondered off down the five steps into the bath to look at the floor.
"Well" Sulinus said, eyeing the Doctor nervously. "We are taking the wooden roof down first, and adding the extra support to the pilars, and then we are going to construct a wooden framework and build the new roof on top of that as support, and then dismantle the wooden framework when it is all set!"
"It should take a couple of months to complete, which is a shame as it means the Great Bath will be out of action for that time, and man is it impressive when it is full!" Said Brucius.
"That sounds like it is going to be very impressive! Shame I can't see the 'Great Bath' in action!" I said.
Sulinus and Brucius both grinned.
"Is this lead?" The Doctor called, poking a finger down to the bottom of the Great Bath.
"Yes! 45 sheets of it taken from the Mendip Hills. Was put in when the Baths were first built. Have hardly any problems with it! Keeps the warm water in and the cold water out! The sacred spring also has a lead lining."
"Ah ha" The Doctor nodded. "Looks pretty secure. I'm impressed!" He started jumping up and down on it to check the strength.
"Did you say that your name was Sulinus?" I asked quickly in order to distract the masons from the Doctor's increasingly embarrassing actions.
"Yes, my Partner raises a valid point," the Doctor said, taking one final jump and then walking back up the steps to join us on the side. "We keep hearing that name, Sulis, Sulinius..." The Doctor said.
"Well of course you do! This is the sacred site of Sulis Minerva" said Brucius. "Me and the missus see, we were trying to have children but the first two we had died. So we went to see High Priest Gius to see what we could do. Now he suggested that we pray to Sulis Minerva, and give her lots of offerings"
"Sacrificed a goat didn't you dad?" Sulinus said, sounding impressed.
"Yeah, it was blooming expensive too! But after all our offerings and prayers the missus finally became pregnant and this here my son was born. So we named him Sulinus in honour of the Goddess herself. Some times I wonder whether he's more of a curse than a blessing though! ha ha ha!" Brucius laughed.
"Ah, it is as I thought then." Murmured the Doctor, coming back up the steps. "We didn't move in space we just moved forward in time. This is the site of Bladud and the 'Holy' springs. And something is still preforming 'miracles'"
"What do you think caused that then?" I asked, worried.
"I'm not quite sure, but something is messing with the Tardis, not allowing it to stay in one time zone for too long...." The Doctor was interrupted by a sharp beeping noise coming from his jacket. He pulled out a strange round device that was flashing and vibrating widely. "Ha! I thought this would happen. The tardis is attempting to materialise! Quick! We have to get back before it leaves without us!"
"Oh! Bye Sulinus!" I shouted as the Doctor grabbed me by the hand and started running to the exit. "Hey Doctor! No running in the swimming pool!" I grinned.
We dashed out of the Great Bath and back the way we had come, dodging through the streets and past the various worshippers or bathers who had come to the Baths. The Doctor lunged for the door. We made it just in time as when the door slammed shut the Tardis started to disappear.
"I wonder when we will be next time..." I said to the Doctor, feeling worried.
To Be Continued.
Cue Doctor Who ending music *ooooweeeeooooooooodooodadoooooooodooodooodooooodoooo....*
Read the next instalment in Doctor Who visits the Spa
(Doctor Who, the Tardis and all other awesome related things are copyrighted by the BBC etc etc)
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