**The next several chapters will be shorter, given the nature of Theta's meet-and-greet moments. This one comes from "The Abominable Snowman", one of the infamous episodes where most of its original footage was lost.**

"So where to next?" Clara piped up from the side of the console. When the Doctor didn't reply, she moved until she was looking at the TARDIS monitor over his shoulder, but the screen's circles and spinning digits were as baffling as ever.

"Earth, Tibet, the Himalayas," the Doctor replied with a hint of venom. He grumbled something under his breath turned abruptly. He paced around the console, hitting various switches as he did so, but his face was as closed off as ever.

Clara grinned and leaned against the side of the console, choosing ignore the Time Lord's grouchy mood. "Sounds fun. You gonna investigate or…"

"No!" He kicked the metal floor half-heartedly. "Bloody creature's gone blundering into my time lines again."

"Oh, come on. Whatever happened to getting your hands dirty?"

The Doctor looked at her like she'd grown another head. "Clara! The TARDIS is parked mere feet away from the entrance to a secret, ancient society. In minutes the other me will be dragged here as bait!"

"Bait?" Clara giggled like a school girl and leaned towards him. "Oh, this I have to hear."

He scoffed. "Later. Right now, we're leaving."

The Doctor moved to the TARDIS controls, but sparks flew out as soon as he touched them. "Oi!" After an incredulous pause, he shot a glare at the time rotor. "He'll be fine. Tell him to go destroy another ship if you like him so much."

Clara raised her eyebrow. It wasn't the first time she'd felt left out of the telepathic conversations between the Doctor and his ship. "What's She saying?"

"The TARDIS likes Theta. Theta stays, so we stay. When Theta goes, we go." He sighed heavily and sat down on a nearby step. "Remind me to throw that space rat in a supernova once we've finished this game."

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied, grinning knowingly. If the gray-haired old man in front of her really did mean what he said about Theta, that griffin would have never survived the first trip. Clara took a moment to enjoy the memory. They'd ended up in Vietnam during the American Vietnam War, rather than 49th-century Vietnam, the "planet of a thousand souls". Theta had been the one to save them from a napalm assault, much to the Doctor's annoyance.

The Doctor continued to stew in silence, and Clara finally found the patience to sit on the floor in front of him. "So," she said. "Tell me about this 'other you'."

He stared at her for a long moment, but he'd already told her about his first incarnation. What harm was there in describing the second? "I regenerated in the TARDIS, after battling the Cybermen in Antarctica—"

"The what?"

The Doctor's eyes widened. "How dare you interrupt? Here I am, laying my history out before you…" When he noticed that she was grinning from ear to ear, he huffed and started again. "Anyway, it was in the TARDIS. Ben and Polly were there…"


"Who are you?!"

Theta looked up quickly and shook his head, scattering the dust and straw that had gathered on his feathers. He was in a cell, made of stone, lying upside down on a very cold floor. How odd. Clearly time jumping was something he needed some practice with. On the beach planet he'd crashed into a palm tree, and he was lucky the first Doctor didn't see the mess he'd inadvertently made in the back of the junkyard.

Right, someone had asked him a question.

Theta grumbled and snarked as he wearily rolled over, shaking every feather on his wings as he did so. After a few moments of general self-reprimanding, the griffin took a good look at the man he realized was sitting in front of him.

The man was wearing an enormous fur coat that covered the rest of his outfit, with only black pant legs and shoes sticking out of the bottom. His expression was one of shock, which was understandable. The griffin must have appeared from nowhere. Theta bit back a smirk at how the man's thick black eyebrows had bypassed his wrinkles and were now hiding somewhere in his black, bowl-shaped hair.

"I said, who are you?" The man asked again.

Theta blinked at him and squinted. This had to be the Doctor. Right?

The man frowned, the change in expression allowing the eyebrows to descend back to their rightful place. "Can you communicate, creature?"

The griffin frowned and screeched in offence. Of course I can communicate! I'm not some dumb microbe.

There went the eyebrows again, up, up, and away. "Your language! But that's—no, no, it's you again, isn't it? The gryphes de stellis from the junkyard!"

Yep! Theta grinned proudly. Back again! You're looking a bit different, though. Aren't you, Doctor?

The Doctor frowned until the corners of his mouth formed a bridge between the left half of his face with the right. "I have to wonder how you know who I am. And how you appear at random occurrences. There's something there, though, the time vortex…are you part of the TARDIS by any chance?"

No telling! That'd be cheating! Theta chortled. He danced back and forth on his paws, letting his talons scatter loose strands of hay. As he calmed, he glanced around at his surroundings. What a dump! Don't tell me you live here?

"I'm in a prison, you buffoon!" The Doctor answered, rolling his eyes. "How come you don't know that? Ever hear of, 'Look before you leap'?"

Ever heard of 'Think before you speak'? He laughed at the man's confused expression, taking pure delight in knowing something someone else did not.

Suddenly the griffin froze as he saw what was in the Doctor's hands. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew it was a human instrument. But all Theta could focus on was, STICK!

The Time Lord winced at the abrupt screech. "I beg your pardon?"

Before he could react Theta had pounced on his chest and vaulted himself to the ceiling, the Doctor's recorder clutched in his beak.

"Hey!" The Doctor shouted, standing up to his full (but not that impressive) height. His demeanor was even less intimidating thanks to the thick fur coat he still wore. "Give it back, you! I say, get down here right now!"

But Theta ignored him completely, literally bouncing off the walls, floor, and ceiling as he gripped his prize. Eventually he figured out that if he held it vertically, it made noise. Soon it became Theta the star griffin flapping around the Doctor's head, tooting and whistling, while the man himself waved his arms and shouted like a mad man.

Finally Theta's wings and lungs tired, and he dropped to the straw floor with a scratchy note dying on his lips. The griffin glanced up at his pursuer, who was also taking a short respite against the far wall. Eyes shining with mirth, he shook his recorder side to side like a dog would to a bone, savoring the Doctor's bugged-out eyes that so resembled Theta's current Doctor.

The Time Lord, still breathing heavily, only huffed in annoyance and walked closer, until he was standing over the small gryphes de stellis at his feet. He raised his eyebrow and leered at Theta, until the griffin sighed and relinquished his toy. The Doctor picked the instrument up and dusted it off, before sitting back down in his earlier spot against the wall.

"Well…" He rubbed the corner of his eye absently. "That accomplished nothing."

Theta grinned, the glint returning to his eyes as he felt the time vortex pull at him once again. Wasn't supposed to accomplish anything, Clown. He ignored the Doctor's confused look, and instead cocked his ears. Sounds like a visitor. Could be anybody. I'll see you someday!

And with a last grin, Theta jumped up and vanished.

The Doctor stared at the spot where the strange star griffin had disappeared, before shaking his head in exasperation. "Someday"…he wondered when that would be. The little rat had sounded pretty sure of himself. Next time he must get the creature's name.

Absently he raised his recorder and began playing the first stanza to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", the sounds of the approaching solider already reaching his ears.