**No one really expressed interest in me continuing this particular "series", but oh well, watch me continue it anyway! Fact is, I like Doctor Who, and I really like griffins, so yeah, I'm gonna make what I wanna happen, happen. Huzzah! Future chapters will be different "adventures" Theta goes on, with the Doctor and Clara trailing behind in a crazy game of tag. Yes, there will be cameos! These are all sequels to "Beasts of the Past", which you should read so you know why there's a random griffin named Theta hanging around in the TARDIS. Enjoy!

Image credit goes to "shadowwolf-art" of Deviant Art.**

Clara was finally enjoying a moment of peace, quiet, and farfalle with chicken and pesto sauce when the Doctor stormed into the TARDIS kitchen.

"Right! That's it! I've had it!" Theta appeared behind him in a flurry of feathers, his wings nearly knocking the Doctor over as the Time Lord collapsed into an open chair at the dining table.

Clara bit back a groan and abandoned her fork and her meal. Honestly! It'd been little over a week and these two intergalactic boys had done nothing but fight. They were lucky the peace-keeping, babysitter Clara was there, or else the TARDIS would be a war zone. "What now, Doctor?"

"It's this…thing!" Theta sat itself down on the opposite side of the table and reared his neck back, affronted. The Doctor only glared at him. "Yes, this creature! All it seems to know how to do is make my life more difficult than it already is! Honestly, Clara, the decency of these…pests is atrocious…"

Unbeknownst to the Doctor, Theta was mimicking the Doctor's monologue in the background with waving claws and animalistic grumbling.

Clara raised an eyebrow. "And you don't think that you're overreacting in any way?"

"Clara, he was chewing the fluid link! If he bit through that we would be swimming in liquid mercury right now, which, need I remind you, is toxic when it vaporizes." He raised his prominent eyebrows towards the golden creature. "Or it could have exploded! Didn't think of that, did you? Useless lump of nothing, you are."

She glanced towards the griffin when Theta growled something Clara couldn't understand. But its venomous meaning was clear.

Apparently, the Doctor got that sense, too. "Well, excuse me," he snapped at the star griffin. "If I didn't know better I'd say I was being told off by a rat with pigeon feathers!"

"You can understand him?" Clara quickly asked. Rule number one of babysitting: distract the troublesome child with something else. The quicker the better, especially when one of the aggressors happened to be an irritated eagle-lion hybrid from outer space.

The Doctor leaned back in his chair once more and crossed his arms. "Course I can understand him," he answered. "I can speak all languages. Horse, baby, you name it."

"Baby? Why—never mind." She blinked and shook her head. "But why won't the TARDIS translate it for me?"

The Time Lord didn't even look at her, his attention completely riveted on Theta. "Too complex, too animal, too advanced and alien. Too much for your brain to handle. Take your pick. Or in this case, maybe it's too simple." He leaned forward again as he addressed the griffin head on. "You'd get more intelligent conversation out of a newborn adipose."

Theta snarled and reared up, hissing and snapping his wings and tail in anger.

"You wanna say that again, fleabag? I'll kick you into the nearest black hole, and even that'll be too good for ya!"

"Doctor, no. Back off," Clara seethed. Perhaps it wasn't healthy for her to continue to put herself in between the two rivals, but she couldn't very well let them have the run of the TARDIS. She was on this ship, too, and Clara's patience was wearing thin.

The Doctor half turned towards her, making Clara feel hopeful that maybe they could sort this out peaceably. "But he—oh, and I found your precious crown, you golden twat!"

Clara groaned inwardly. One step forward, two steps back.

"You stash your treasures in my stabilizers again and it won't be just molten gold I'll be cleaning up off the grating."

Theta's wings suddenly drooped, and Clara knew that the "King of Rude" had gone too far. "Doctor, you don't mean that!"

He sniffed indignantly. "I do if he's gonna be a prat about it."

This time Theta's beak curved into a snarl, and he crouched down into a defensive position. One more jab like that and there'd be blood.

Thinking quickly, Clara thrust her hand into her pants pocket, which already had the solution to occasions such as these. "Here boy, gold!" She called, and threw a handful of golden coins across the kitchen tiles. Theta brightened considerably and chased after the scattered treasure, briefly forgetting his irritation towards the Doctor.

Clara turned towards the Time Lord in question, her arms already crossed. "Doctor…"

"But he's to blame for us landing on Horacho in the wrong season, not me!" The Doctor protested. "He'd found a pocket watch from one of my previous regenerations and had stuffed it into the comparator. We're lucky the TARDIS didn't end up in the middle of a supernova."

She opened her mouth to retort, but then her brow furrowed in confusion. "Wait, what?" Clara glared at him. "You told me you did that on purpose!"

The Doctor bit his tongue, regretting this particular change in topic. "Would it had been so terrible if I had meant to do that?"

"Doctor, we got there during mating season. Mating season, Doctor! With those bug creatures fawning over me or something!"

"It would have been a good biology lesson if we'd stayed longer." A silly grin appeared on his face, and Clara insistently knew what was coming. "Did you know that—"

"No, I didn't, how fascinating, now shut it!" Clara snapped, cutting off his rambling before he could distract her further. Theta was back at the foot of the table, the coins in a neat pile at his feet and his eyes watching them bicker with interest. Clara glanced at the griffin before turning back to the Time Lord. "Back to your console room, now. Finish tinkering, do whatever you need to do, just go cool off."

The Doctor was speechless. "But—"

"Now!" He stared at her in amazement, and then picked himself up and stomped out into the TARDIS corridor, grumbling about "demanding companions". Clara rolled her eyes. For a two thousand year old Time Lord he really was the picture of a pouting toddler. She looked back down at the griffin at her feet. "Sorry, Theta. That wasn't very nice of him, now was it? I know he doesn't really mean it, though."

Theta grumbled and nuzzled his beak into the floor. The coins scattered at his feet, but he didn't seem to care.

Clara frowned, taking note of the way he clenched his muscles. "What's wrong, boy? Something you ate?"

The griffin shook his head, and he growled louder and thrashed his tail.

"You getting restless?" Theta flapped his wings, which wasn't exactly a no. Clara bit her lip. "The Doctor said this would happen, being a wild creature in an enclosed space and all. But we've played in the TARDIS rooms, right? And the Doctor, too, when he isn't busy doing something else. You have your run of the ship. And we go on adventures every day."

Whatever was wrong with Theta, Clara just couldn't understand it. The griffin jumped into the air and flew around the kitchen in agitated leaps, half screaming the entire time. Clara tried to put her hand out to him, but Theta just snapped his beak at her and flew deeper into the TARDIS.

"Theta!" Clara called. She stood in the middle of the corridor, but there was no sign or sound from the griffin. "Stupid bird," she muttered, and ran to the console room.

"Doctor!" Clara shouted, bursting into the octagonal room. She found him leaning against the railing, fiddling with something in his hands. "Doctor, it's Theta!"

The Doctor's bushy eyebrows furrowed, but he kept his focus on his new project. "Hm? What about me?" When he was met with silence, he glanced up, his mouth forming a comical "oh". "Oh, that Theta. Well—"

Clara opened her mouth to continue, but once again the Doctor's words made her pause. "Wait. Your name is Theta?"

"No, of course it's not my name! Why would you think that?" He shoved the device into his coat pocket. "Much too simple. Common, really."

Well, this was new. The Doctor never talked to her about his past. Sometimes Clara got the impression he never talked about his past lives and tragedies because he had forgotten parts of it. A part of her felt guilty, but Theta could wait a little longer. Clara fully intended to make use of this opportunity to learn more about the elusive Doctor. She walked down the stairs to stand next to him and asked, "Then why—"

He waved his hand through the air, like the answer was of little consequence. "It's my second name. You know, the kind of name they use to shorten the original name."

"Like a nickname?"

"Yes, that!" Suddenly a change came over the Doctor's face, and Clara knew question time was over. "Anyway, what's wrong with Theta, the griffin one?"

She shook her head "I was talking to him, and then he just started bouncing off the walls."

The Doctor gave her a disparaging look. "Oh no. Clara, how much horse meat did you give him?"

"No, I didn't give him any! He is literally jumping off the walls."

At that moment Theta burst into the console room, his wings whipping up tiny whirlwinds in his wake.

"See?" Clara said. At the sound of her voice the griffin screeched and dove onto one of the bookcases lining the walls. Feathers and bits of paper flew as Theta began to rip apart each book.

"No, no, no!" The Doctor shouted, stomping closer to where Theta sat. "Don't do that! You infernal pest, what's gotten into you?"

The griffin glared at him and screeched again. This time his call sounded different, more in urgency than anger.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "What? Theta, you little—" He muttered something that sounded like nonsense to Clara's ears, but she didn't doubt it was some alien curse. She saw him glance at her. "Why now? Can't we do this when Clara's sleeping or something?"

"Doctor, what's going on?" Clara asked warily. Theta ignored her and was nodding eagerly.

"The rat wants to play a game." The Doctor breathed steadily through his mouth in a heavy sigh. Suddenly a grin spread over his face, and he faced Clara and clapped his hands together. "So, let's play!"

Theta screeched in triumph and abandoned the bookshelf, flapping to his usual spot at the base of the central column. Clara groaned and put a hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Doctor, would you please tell me what is going on?"

"Temporal and intergalactic jumping. T-I-J," the Doctor proclaimed, his feet already carrying him around the console in the dance of a TARDIS pilot. He glanced up at her confused expression. "Humans know it best as 'tag'."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?" She glanced at the griffin, who was dancing over the TARDIS controls and crowing triumphantly. "Theta got this worked up over a child's game?"

"A child's game? How dare you?" The Doctor looked down his nose at her as if she were a child herself. "T-I-J is a very complicated sport that spans across space and time! When my people were still around it even became trans-dimensional. Every species that's capable of traveling through time and space plays it, Time Lords and gryphes de stellis included."

Space tag. Of course, she should have guessed. "So how's it played?"

He shrugged and turned back to the TARDIS controls. "Much like the Earth version, except across a much wider area. Time Lord teenagers usually stole their parents' TARDIS and challenged their friends. Star griffins used gravity fields, asteroid belts, and far-reaching comets." The Doctor looked up at Theta, who watched him with eager eyes. "Theta's probably feeling homesick. We've played it occasionally, while you're asleep, but it's always been in short hops. Nothing too drastic." Clara heard the Doctor's thoughtful pause. "I don't think that's going to be the case this time."

Theta screeched in affirmation. Quick as anything, the griffin flapped his wings and half flew, half climbed to the top of the time rotor. As soon as he touched the ceiling, Theta vanished in a flash of gold.

Clara's eyes widened. "Where'd he go?"

"Where I figured he would." The Doctor turned back to her, his hand poised on a large handle. "Theta's in the TARDIS. Or, more specifically, the part of Her that's connected to the time vortex. When I pull this lever, he could go anywhere, and the TARDIS is programmed to follow him. It's our job to 'tag' Theta before he can slip back into the time stream." He gave her a level stare. "Do you hear me, Clara? Anywhere, and any-when. We could be heading into a war zone, or a planet unsafe for humans. We could accidently end up in a fixed point in time, or come across a past version of me, or you. But between you and me, hopping through my time line would be the easiest route for our young friend to take. All he has to do is go where the TARDIS records say She's gone before." He paused, as if for dramatic effect. Clara could have sworn she heard a triumphant screech come from somewhere above them. "This could get very dangerous."

"Then why did you let Theta have the run of the time vortex?" Clara asked quickly. "What if he makes the universe implode?"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. We'll be fine!" She wasn't convinced, and the Doctor's face gave a little. "Okay, so, maybe we could cause a paradox or two. Just…stay close! Don't wander off!"

Clara rolled her eyes and nodded, but she couldn't help feeling a sense of apprehension. They were about to seriously submit their control of the TARDIS to a space griffin, all for a game of space-and-time tag.

Maybe the Doctor's whole "mad man in a box" thing got progressively worse with age.

The Doctor shot her another maniacal grin, and pulled the lever.

**Quick thanks to Doctor Who: The Official Miscellany by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright for its TARDIS components chart.**