A few hours before.

"So, where are we going?" Clara Oswald asked as she hopped inside the time machine parked inside of her closet.

The Doctor looked up to her from behind the console. "Somewhere beautiful."

She closed the door behind her, the corner of her lips turning into a slight smile. "Aren't all places beautiful, Doctor?"

"Oh, you're such a romantic," he mocked her, before walking towards the place where she stood. "But no, Clara, not all places in the universe are pretty."

Her face turned into a frown. "Why don't you ever take me to those places?"

He rose an eyebrow at her. "Haven't you seen enough ugliness in your life, already?"

She shrugged. "Guess so," she mumbled, but it took her only a few seconds to snap out of her sorrow, running towards the console where he was standing. "Well, where are you taking me, then?"

He rushed to her side. "Somewhere beautifu,l" he repeated, pushing and pressing all kinds of buttons that Clara was pretty sure didn't have any purpose except to show him off. "Somewhere you've never been before,"

Clara held tight to the console, as the TARDIS began to shake her way through the time vortex. She had no other alternative but to shout: "Why don't you ever tell me where we're going?"

Abruptly, the time machine landed, and he gave her a smirk, smiling with his eyes. "Where's the fun in that?"

Clara felt the Doctor wrap his fingers around hers, pulling her towards the door. They locked eyes for a brief second, before finally stepping out of the TARDIS. "Welcome to Grantlera!"

Amazed, Clara started to explore her surroundings, still feeling the Doctor's gaze upon her. Her lips opened in a full smile, appreciating all the wonder around her. "What is this place?"

With a click of fingers, he closed the doors of his spaceship. "Oh, this is nothing but the biggest fair in the universe!" he exclaimed with a glow, as excited as she was. "I haven't been here since I was a baby – barely 200 years old. People from all over the galaxy come over to this fair that occupies nothing less than the entire planet!"

Listening carefully to his words, she started to wander off, the Doctor always one step behind her. "I don't see any humans."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Well, Clara, don't be so naïve. This is way behind the point where the humans start to develop technology enough to travel the stars."

Clara turned to face, giving him a smirk. "Does this mean I am the first human to ever step in Grantlera?"

He gave her a face. "It's not such a big deal. There's always a first person to stand in a new planet."

She frowned her eyebrows. "Oi, don't ruin my moment."

But as much as he seemed annoyed in the outside, he actually found very cute how excited she got over silly little things. He leaned to grab her hand once again. "Come on, let's show you off."

Although he was the one with local knowledge, Clara was the one guiding him, running through all those tends filled with all kinds of things from all kinds of creatures that she couldn't tell where from. She giggled in joy, looking at all the unique faces. "What do they sell here?"

"Everything," he explained. "People bring all sorts of treats from their home planet, food, pets, toys, everything they assume other civilizations might be interested in."

"So, if I find a dog amusing, I could bring it here and sell it?"

"Of course not. Dogs didn't first come from Earth, they have their own planet, in which they developed way faster than on Earth. If you brought a dog here, the Doglings would mostly haunt you down for slavery."

Clara turned dead on her tracks. "If dogs didn't come from Earth, then how did end up there?"

The Doctor squealed to himself, remembering the one time one of his previous reincarnations had been feeling lonely and thought to himself it would be fun to introduce those creatures to the very beginning of the human race. "I was very, very bored."

Clara laughed, finally releasing the grip of his hand, so she could run off towards one tend with some very appealing fruits – or whatever they might have been. "Doctor?! What are those?"

He walked up to her. "Oh, the wonders from the galaxy of Malahauwa. They're pretty tasteful," he said, grabbing one of the bright purpled fruit and taking a bite.

Clara leaned upon him, whispering, "Aren't we supposed to pay before eating, Doctor?"

The man twisted his shoulders. "I don't have no money," he confessed, with the slightest grin. "Plus, everybody pays a high price if they want to enter the planet, after that they're allowed to consume anything they want from the fair. The money gets divided between every salesperson they have here."

Her face remained perfectly still. "We still didn't pay, Doctor."

He threw his hands at the air. "Like I said, I've got no money!"

The Doctor started waking on about, leaving Clara to shyly grab one of the fruits while shooting the creature a faint smile. Then she found her way back to the Doctor. "So, what else is there to see here?"

"Oh!" he suddenly shouted like an excited child. "I know exactly what you want to see next."

With the excitement running through her veins, she let him guide her through the amount of people, pushing their way through. They ran for almost three minutes, until the Doctor stopped her. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she replied in a short breath.

"Okay, what you're about to see…. There's no such a thing anywhere else in the whole universe. This, brought here by the people of Peletra…" he made sure to add the suspense to his voice, "…is the biggest collection of rocks in the whole universe!"

Clara didn't know whether to laugh or snap at him. She chose to give him the face. "Really?! You've got me running here to see a collection of rocks?!"

The Doctor took a step back, not quite getting her point. "It's a very pretty collection, Clara. You won't find one anywhere else."

"There are rocks on Earth, Doctor," she spatted, her eyes doing that thing he absolutely couldn't stand. "I think when you said this was something I'd like to see, you were talking about yourself."

"But it's the biggest collection of rocks in the universe…!" he exclaimed for what seemed the third time, his voice begging her to let him do what he wanted.

She couldn't help herself but to give him that. "Tell you what, Doctor, feel free to appreciate that collection of yours, I'm just going to wander off until you're done doing… whatever it is that you do when you're surrounded by rocks"

She didn't have to say twice for him to go along. "You sure you are going to be okay on your own?"

She shot her shoulders up and down. "When don't I?"

He nodded as he watched her walk off to explore the place.

Clara kept her eyes wild, as she came across species from all over the universe. She really enjoyed visiting new planets, perhaps even more that traveling back in time and being a part of human history herself. The universe was a big beautiful place and she found herself very lucky for being able to see it with her own eyes.

Some kind of tune got her attention, and she found herself following the sound. She had a little trouble tracking its origin down, but soon enough she was standing before a not too big crowd, eyeing a few musicians with the strangest instrument her mind couldn't even imagine of, and yet they produced a beautiful melody, one that she could easily spend the rest of her life listening to. She felt sad there wasn't a CD or something she could take home with her.

Clara closed her eyes, and for a moment, she felt like she was the only person left in that whole planet. Unconsciously, her fingers started to dance to the rhythm of the tune, and her lips fade into a weak but bright smile. She didn't ever want to leave that place.

"Let me go! No! Help me!"

Clara was brought back by the distant plead of help, in which she wasn't sure she had heard in the first place. For all she knew, her mind could be playing tricks on her. She looked around, searching for anything even remotely out of the ordinary. She came across nothing.

"Help me! Somebody! Help!"

She heard the screaming again and that time she didn't doubt herself. She listened to the music fade away as the cries for help grew louder as she got closer. For a brief second, she considered going to get the Doctor, as she had no way of fighting whatever creature was attacking whatever other creature apart from her words. But at the same time, what would take her to find him could mean the end of an innocent life. She didn't want to take that risk.

"Oi! Get away from her, you… you big spacey thing!" she ordered, running towards the little girl, who could easily resemble to a human child, although she had an extra eye between her brows and an unusual set of dark blue hair locks. Her fingers were long and skinny, a little unproportioned compared to the rest of her body, but unique nonetheless.

Fiercely, Clara pulled the child back, even if that alien monster had held a tight grip around her wrist. "Stay back, sweetie," she strongly wrapped her arms around the tiny being.

"Who do you think you are?!" the nasty creature questioned, their voice strong and firm, lacking any kind of compassion. But as scary as he tried to be, it didn't make her even flinch.

Instead, she just frowned her eyes. "I'm Clara. I'm human and I don't like seeing people getting hurt, never mind people hurting other people. So, I'm willing to forget all of this if you just walk away and we will all just carry on with our days."

It stood still, giving Clara the chance to really study him and his body, so she could brag to the Doctor about how she saved the life of a helpless child from a heinous monster later. He wasn't that big, but his body weight could easily take over at least three of her. His face, on the other hand, was as tragic as one could be. It was really deformed and she couldn't tell where it began or ended.

Fortunately, he took a step back, allowing Clara to run away with the child under her care.

Once they were out of danger, Clara kneeled down in front of her, so their eyes could almost be at the same height. "What's your name?"

"Cordir" she let out in a whisper.

"Cordir" she repeated, giving melody to her name. "Are you okay, Cordir?"

"Yes," she had a fierce face on, "He was just being a bully."

Clara smiled sadly, agreeing. "Don't worry about him coming back to you. I'll ask my friend – who's the protector of the universe – to keep an eye out for you."

The little girl – although she appeared older than her height – smiled. "Thank your friend for me. And you too, Clara."

Clara stood up as she watched the young woman walk away. Smiling to herself, she started to wander off once again, humming to herself the tune of Hungry Like the Wolf. Her eyes passed along all those little tends with little things, looking for something she could take home as a souvenir. She had a whole space in her closet dedicated to something she brought from every planet she visited. Little things to remind her she still hadn't seen 101 places, like she once had planned with her mother.

She wandered off until she reached a beautiful and bright garden, with a little sign saying that there were the most exquisite flowers from the planet Fudowawa. And even if there were flowers on Earth, those certainly were more interesting and even more beautiful than a collection of rocks.

She kept walking, distracted with everything that surrounded her. It all appeared so beautiful, so peaceful, and she wished her home planet were more like that and less wars and hatred. She knew there was cruelness in every planet, but something made her think that humans took that cruelness to a whole new level.

And Clara was so distracted in her own world that she felt her lungs gasp for air when a strong set of arms grabbed her body.

"No one messes with us and walks away with it."

Clara's breathing became quicker, and she did her best to free herself from whoever had just decided to take her down – although she very much knew who that was, the monster she had just stood up against. "Let me go!"

The monster lifted her in the air, as she started to kick the air in attempts to free herself. "You're coming with us."

"No! Don't touch me!" she screamed as loudly as she could in the hope anyone would hear her. But no one seemed to. "Doctor! Doctor, help!"

A strong hand was placed on top of her mouth and she couldn't breathe. Her despair kept growing but she still tried to break free. It wasn't working; her limbs were slowing letting her down.

It didn't take much for her world to become black.

An odd feeling ran through the Doctor.

He wasn't even halfway through those unique rocks, when he suddenly felt like something was wrong. He rushed his way outside, his eyes looking for something that didn't ring a bell, but he couldn't find anything.

Clara.

He started to look for her and his heart raced when there was no sign of her. Sure, it was a big place, but something didn't feel right. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his inside pocket, setting it to trace her phone.

Then, he just ran.

"Doctor!"

It was distant, but it was there. Her screams. He could recognize her voice anywhere in time and space, and his hearts raced at the thought she was in distress. His hearts ached at the possibility of not being able to save her on time.

He couldn't bear to lose her again.

His sonic lead him to the Gardens of Fudowawa, but he couldn't see her. It didn't make sense, his toy never got it wrong. Not like his spaceship anyway. He looked around, trying to find her, as scared as ever.

His eyes were attracted to a piece of metal laying in the floor. The Doctor knelt down to pick it up, then analyzing the now shattered screen of her phone.

"Oh, Clara," he cried in a whisper, "What have you got yourself into."