Author's note: My knowledge of ancient Greece owes more to mythology than to history and this story is thus more grounded in the former than the latter (though I do not claim to be an expert by any means.) Chronos is the god of time. His consort, Ananke, is the goddess of inevitability. This is a story of the Doctor and River set in my version of the world of Homer and Euripides, with some anachronisms thrown in just for fun. I hope you enjoy it.
Chronos and Ananke
Soon after the child of the morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, a shout rang out above the growing clamor of the slave market of Corinth.
"How dare you put such a low price on me, you loathsome toad! I'm worth much more than that and you know it," a voluptuous woman with abundant blond curls shouted at a portly man with a receding hairline, as he pounded a wooden sign into the ground in front of her.
The man shook his head ruefully and replied, "When King Agamemnon gave you to me in payment of a debt, I had no idea that he was getting the better end of the bargain. You are so lovely and possess so many talents that I thought I could make a fortune from you, but you have been nothing but trouble from the start. It's a wonder Trojan women are in such high demand in the marketplace when you're all such termagants. They should have left you in the city when they burned it to the ground. I can't wait to see the back of you."
"Oh, I know how much you'd like to see the back of me," she purred. Then her voice rose once more to a shout, "But how many times do I have to tell you that I don't fancy you before it sinks into your thick skull? You Greeks all think that you're Aphrodite's gifts to us, but the women of Troy are not so easily impressed. We had real men there, not pathetic worms like you. There isn't a single man among you who would be fit to carry Hector's sandals!"
He sighed and continued his preparations for the start of the morning trading, muttering under his breath, "Achilles, may his shade rest content in the realm of Hades, carried a lot more than Hector's sandals...he pulled the blighter's whole bloody carcass behind his chariot...by the heels...only fitting end for trash like that...shame he didn't get the chance to do the same thing to the brother..."
Overhearing this, she pulled at her bonds and shook with rage. Her voice was low and deadly. "I've changed my mind. Mark the price down a bit more, if you please, Lux. I swear by all the gods of Olympus, you will be dead before Dawn next appears if I have to spend another day in your presence. Hmm..I think you will be anyway..."
She paused and looked off into the distance, with a strange expression on her face. Suddenly, her eyes rose heavenwards, her body swayed, and her voice took on an unearthly tone, "Today is the day I have long foreseen. He approaches. The man whose fate is entwined with mine much like the serpents winding together around the staff of Hermes. He names himself a follower of Asclepius, but others know him as the Oncoming Storm. He brings chaos with him wherever he roams and Thanatos is his boon companion. And I shall call him...Sweetie? Hmmm...How odd...I wonder why I'll do that?"
The balding man shook his head again in exasperation. "There she goes again. None of her prophecies ever come true. Said I'd lose my head to a three-headed monster. Next time I see Agamemnon, I'm gonna deck him. Calls herself River. Probably named after the Styx..."
Overhearing the last part, River retorted, "Yes, that would be rather appropriate as those who cross me do tend to wind up dead..."
A short distance away, a small group of men gathered together and began to sing in unison:
"Woe upon this daughter of Troy,
trained to kill, but born to love,
her fate bound to a clever boy,
whose playground is the sky above
The gods are laughing on this day
at all the mischief they'll be bringing
to this strange pair along their way.
Say, why on Earth are we all singing?"
The men all shook themselves and began to wander off, wearing confused looks on their faces. As they dispersed, a tall man stalked through the crowd towards Lux, with a decidedly grim expression on his face. He wore brightly-colored robes, with an unusually long sash wound haphazardly around himself, part of it looped around his shoulders and part around his waist. A tall crown adorned with ostrich feathers was perched at an odd angle on top of his unruly black hair.
"Hello, Sweetie," River purred, with a hint of surprise in her voice. "I knew you were clever, but I didn't know you were quite so good-looking.
The man gave her an strange look and turned to Lux, "Agoranomos, you need to clear this area immediately."
Lux looked at the man blankly. "Are you here to buy or to sell?"
The man paced back and forth, clearly agitated. "Neither! Everyone needs to get out of here. You are all in terrible danger."
"Ummmm...right...and who are you exactly?" asked Lux, with a light laugh.
"He's called the Doctor," said River, as she gazed intently at the unusual man. "He's quite well known among my people."
Lux looked surprised. "Doctor? Strange name...sounds Etruscan." He turned once again towards the Doctor. "You're rather far away from home, aren't you? No wonder you're behaving so oddly. I really can't have you disrupting the marketplace in this fashion. If you're not going to buy or sell something, please leave. You're disturbing the customers."
The Doctor threw his hands up and shook his head. "Fine, fine. I'll buy that lovely piece of pottery over there. Now would you please clear the area?"
"What, that old chamber pot? It's not for sale..." began Lux.
"But I am," River interjected. "Buy me. I assure you I'm worth it."
The Doctor turned to Lux and said, "Oh, no. Tell me you're not a slave trader."
"Do you have a problem with slave traders?" River asked.
The Doctor turned and looked at River, with a calculating look in his eye. "Yes, but we don't have time to discuss it right now." He turned towards Lux again. "All right. I don't really need a bed slave, but I'll buy her. How much did you want?" He looked down at the sign. "Oh, yes. I see...ten drachmae." He dug into a pouch he had tied to the ridiculously long sash around his waist and tossed some coins to Lux. "Now, please let her go and help me clear the market."
Lux counted the coins and turned to the Doctor with a quizzical look on his face, "But there are twenty drachmae here."
The Doctor looked increasingly flustered. "Yes yes yes! Keep it. In fact..." He thrust the whole pouch at Lux. "Here. I'll buy the whole lot. Consider that a down payment. Now go free anyone else you've got tied up back there." Lux rushed away with the money pouch, a gleeful look on his face, and the Doctor turned towards River, saying, "I'll take care of this one."
"No need, my love," said River, lifting up her hands to show that she had already freed herself from her bonds. She sauntered over to the Doctor, put her arms around him, and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Do you really think we're in danger here?"
"Yes. There is more danger here than you could possibly guess. You really should leave now while there is still time." The Doctor pushed away from her and stared off at the horizon, closing first one eye and then the other. He hopped up and down on one foot for a couple moments, with a worried look on his face.
"And where would you have me go, master?" Her emphasis on the last word was suggestive. "I'm from Troy. I don't have a home anymore."
"Troy." He paused and a look of infinite sadness passed over his face. "Well, then. I guess you'll have to stay with me. One thing, though. Please don't call me 'master'. I'm called the Doctor. What's your name?"
"River."
He smiled. "Lovely name. Well, River, I'll do my best to protect you, but you need to do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"
Her curls bounced as she nodded and said, with a grin, "I'm all yours, Sweetie. I do have one question for you, though. What in the name of Zeus is that on your head?"
"It's an atef. I wear an atef. Atefs are cool," he declared, puffing his chest out pridefully.
Without further ado, River grabbed the feathered crown from the Doctor's head, tossed it into the air, pulled out a knife she had taken from the pouch at the Doctor's waist as she was hugging him, and threw it, skewering the crown to a wooden post nearby.
"Now, let's get down to business." She withdrew a second knife she had concealed in her cleavage and pointed it at the Doctor. "I don't really need to be protected, my love, but you may need some protection from me." She attempted to stab him, but he used the pricing sign to block her attack, having pulled it out of the ground while she was busy murdering his hat.
The Doctor lifted both of his hands into the air and ran behind a column. "All right. All right. You want to kill me. I understand. Believe me, I understand. But we really don't have time for this now, my dear. There is a monster on its way here and it will kill everyone and everything that stands in its way. I'd really like to get everyone out of here alive."
River let out a mocking laugh. "As you didn't do for the people of Troy? When you helped the Greeks come up with that clever little plan to sneak into our city, didn't it occur to you what might happen to us?"
"What I did, I did without choice, in the name of peace and sanity. The dying had been going on for ten long years. Someone had to end the stalemate." The Doctor's voice was anguished.
"Tell that to Hecuba! Tell that to Andromache! Tell that to Cassandra! Tell that to all of the women of Troy who suffered similar fates! Ask any of us how much peace and sanity we've had since we were taken from our homes." River looked down at the knife in her hand, struggling to maintain her composure.
The Doctor pleaded, "I never wanted any of that to happen. You must believe me! When I helped Odysseus come up with that plan, I had hoped...Never mind what I hoped... River, please. You can kill me later if you really want to, but right now I need to save all of these people and I don't have much time left to do it. Please, help me."
Just as the Doctor finished speaking, a burst of flame appeared behind him. A leonine creature was charging towards them, breathing fire from its goat-like head and baring the fangs on both of its other two heads, one of which resembled a lion and the other of which looked like the head of a snake. The air was soon filled with the screams of the crowd and the sound of people running.
"What is that thing?" River shouted to the Doctor, who took advantage of her distraction to grab the knife out of her hand and place his body between hers and the approaching monster, clumsily brandishing the knife in front of him for a couple moments, the putting it back into the sheath at his waist.
"She's called the Chimera," he replied, "and she's in a very bad mood."
When the creature was nearly upon them, Lux reappeared with a small group of slaves. He just had time to say, "Where did you want me to send these..." when the Chimera bit his head off.
"I did warn him," said River, watching in horrified fascination the creature munched on Lux's body. "So, what happens now? I'm assuming you have a plan of some sort."
"Well, of course I've got a plan! A great plan. A wonderful plan. Keep everyone else from getting eaten!" The Doctor looked very proud of himself for being so clever.
River rolled her eyes. "That's not a plan, that's just hoping! You knew that thing was coming here. What else do you know about it? How did you know it was on its way here?"
"Never mind that. You wouldn't believe me anyway. Right. River, you lead those people over there to safety. I'll deal with the Chimera." He paused and then turned towards the creature, which had one of Lux's feet sticking out of one of its mouths and a finger sticking out of another. "Excuse me, terribly sorry to disturb your lunch, but I have a couple of questions for you."
River looked at him aghast, "Doctor, are you completely deranged? It's a man-eating monster! You can't reason with it!"
The Doctor looked back towards her and replied, "Why not? There might be a way to convince it not to eat people. What are you still doing here anyway? I told you to lead those people to safety."
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "They can manage without me, but you clearly can't. Do you really think this thing is going to listen to you?"
"Sure. Why not? That would be a nice change. Someone listening to me. Now shut up. I'm busy." He turned once again to the Chimera. "Hello there. You're a long way from home, aren't you? What are you doing here in Corinth, eh?" He paused, listening attentively as the monster growled at him. "Hmmm..He did, eh? That wasn't very nice of him."
"In Athena's name, Doctor, what are you doing?" River whispered into the Doctor's ear.
"I speak Monster."
River laughed. "No, you don't."
"Course I do. I speak everything. This particular monster is upset because some demigod has killed one of her offspring. She's looking for some revenge. Totally understandable, though misguided of course. Revenge always is." Lifting his voice, he addressed the Chimera again. "Tell you what, I know exactly where Heracles is right now. If I help you find him, will you leave the rest of these people alone?"
The Chimera made a sound that curdled River's blood, but the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you!" He walked over to the creature and whispered into one of the ears of the leonine head, at which the Chimera jumped to its feet, belched, and ran off in the direction from which it had come.
"Oh, that's a relief. She was much more reasonable than I thought she might be." The Doctor laughed happily. "Heracles will be able to handle her if she makes it that far."
River looked at him with a mixture of awe and puzzlement. "I had foreseen so many strange things about you, but the reality is stranger still. You really do care about people, don't you?"
The Doctor looked at River, with an unusually serious expression. "Of course I do. Hadn't I mentioned it?" After a hesitant pause, he continued, "Do you still want to kill me?"
River looked him up and down, a speculative gleam in her eye. "Oh, shut up." She wrapped both arms around him and pulled him into a deep kiss. "No, I don't want to kill you, unless you're referring to la petit mort. We have a long future together, you and I. I've been dreaming of it all my life."
The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "Well then, come along, River. Let me show you to my chariot."
"Is it bigger on the inside?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"Spoilers."
As they walked away, arm in arm, a chorus of men's voices could be heard in the distance.
"And so begins the journey
of the Doctor and his wife.
The Doctor soon will learn he
has a true partner for life.
Though their road is never smooth,
they both think that danger's fun.
Love will guide them towards the truth.
Through time and space, watch them run."