Chapter one

The Tardis groaned and creaked as they tumbled through the time vortex. Clara hung on for dear life to some sort of handle-like thing that protruded from the Tardis control panel. The Tardis creaked louder.

"No, no! Don't hang on to that, it makes her… uncomfortable!" The Doctor warned as he noticed Clara.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?!" Clara yelled, wincing as the Tardis lurched to the left, slamming her shoulder into a metal bar.

"Sorry, um," The Doctor spun in circles looking for something else for her to hold on to. He was much more accustomed to the bumpy ride than her, Clara noted with a tinge of annoyance. Before The Doctor had a chance to find another spot for Clara to root herself, the Tardis thumped to a halt and the groaning quieted into a soft hum. "We're here!" He cheered enthusiastically.

"And where, exactly is 'here'?" Clara asked, too used to being plopped onto a completely different planet than The Docor had intended.

"Well, you said you wanted to see something amazing, yes?" The Doctor asked, clearly pleased with whatever decision he'd made.

"Yes," Clara said, anxious to get on with it and see what was outside. "So where are we?" The Doctor flew over to the Tardis doors. He moved like a small animal, Clara noticed, laughing to herself.

"You said you wanted to see something…how did you put it? 'Something…mythical, almost'? He asked, taking his time getting to the big reveal. Clara nodded vigorously and a smile slid across her face. She liked where this was going.

"Well, behold…" The Doctor flung the doors to the outside open. "Asgard!"

The Doctor smiled, watching Clara slowly approach the door with eyes like saucers, obviously trying desperately to take in everything she was seeing.

The sky looked like earth's sky, but bluer, almost an electric blue, and you see other planets clearly. The planets all looked similar to the picture Clara had seen of Neptune, except reddish. Even though it was day, you could make out clusters of stars splattered all over the sky.

The Tardis was parked in what looked like a market, complete with booths with colourful canopy roofs and vendors wearing the most interesting clothing. The market was positioned in a sort of valley. Rocky, snow tipped mountains stood tall in the cloudless skies, their bases littered with wooden buildings and pools of water, their sides covered in tall, futuristic buildings built from some sort of metallic material that glistened in the light that shone from some sort of sun. The sun here was much bigger looking here than on earth, which was quite surprising to Clara because, although it was quite hot here, it wasn't all that much hotter than summer back home.

Ahead of them stood the tallest mountain of them all with glimmering blue falls rolling down the rock face. Perched on and in the mountain was the most architecturally amazing building Clara had ever seen. On the base of the structure, where the water started its fall from, were carved stone things Clara couldn't quite make out from her distance. Above that was a garden, a ring around the mountain completely covered in dense tropical looking trees. Clara couldn't see them clearly, she was too far away, but she could see blotches of red, orange and yellow, amongst the green. Shooting up from the greenery were super long, gold, metallic pillars, all layering each other and different in heights. It reminded her of the pipes on the church organ at the local church back home, only increased in size 4000 times. These pillars were huge, and surrounded by other futuristic buildings that stood next to the main structure on the mountain.

Coming out from the right side of the building was a long bridge that seemed to go on forever. It hurt her eyes to look at it for too long. It was rainbow and clear like glass. It sparkled in the sunlight. It was all very, very beautiful to say the least.

"You like it?" The Doctor asked, giddily.

"I absolutely love it. It's amazing." Clara asked, eyes still wide.

"Like I said, this is Asgard." The Doctor explained. Clara looked at him questioningly.

"Like…Like in the myths?" She asked shocked. She had done a project on Norse mythology in grade 8, and this was much more beautiful –and real- than the Asgard she'd read about. Anyway, those were only myths, weren't they? The Doctor leaned close to her ear and whispered,

"Their not myths, Clara." He pulled back and smiled even wider. "Yes, this is Asgard, home of the Norse gods. They live in that palace up there," The Doctor said pointing to the huge building on the tallest mountain. "This is a market they hold for some of the lesser ranked Asgardians and venders buying and selling important merchandise from any of the 8 other realms. Well, they don't usually, or intentionally have visitors from Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, or Midgard, Earth, but occasionally they have a visitor or two from Alfheim, home of the Light Elves or Vanaheim, home of the Vanir." Clara nodded, although she had gotten a bit lost at Jotunheim. She didn't remember this from grade 8. But then again, she got a B-, so…

"Let's go see what they're selling!" The Doctor said rushing ahead and leaving Clara to catch up. He really was like a baby animal, she though to herself.

"Hey, wait up!" She called, laughing and running to catch up to The Doctor, who was already deep into the twisting alleys of the market.