AM I A GOOD MAN?

Chapter Three

Clara stared at the Doctor as he waited for her opinion. She had to admit he looked quite dashing in his dark blue suit and crisp white shirt. She looked at his neck and felt a pang when she didn't see a bow tie there but she loved the outfit and told him so. A huge smile spread over his face and he came towards her. As he moved, Clara could see red lining in the coat he wore as it fanned out behind him.

"I'm so glad you approve," he said as he walked over to her. "I sometimes have trouble picking out a proper human outfit."

"You mean like the Victorian clothes you wore in twenty first century London?" Clara said wryly.

"I thought I looked quite dashing in that outfit," the Doctor said.

Clara nodded and smiled when the Doctor smiled back. She remembered what her Doctor had told her and without warning she flung her arms around the stunned Doctor and held him tightly. The Doctor stiffened for a few seconds before Clara felt his arms around her.

"So…" he said in her ear, "does this mean we're pals after all?"

"I'd like to be, yeah," Clara said, pulling away. "I don't want to leave. I want to stay here."

"Good," the Doctor said, nodding. "Shall we then?" he said, gesturing to the front doors.

Clara nodded and stepped aside as the Doctor opened the doors. He stepped outside and took a deep breath while Clara followed him. Then he turned and examined his ship while she looked around. The field they were in stretched on for a few miles with a forest in the distance. The grass was a pale yellow, unlike anything she'd ever seen before so she knew they weren't on Earth. The Doctor sighed angrily and cursed to himself in Gallifreyan as Clara turned his attention to him.

"One moment, have to do something," he said before he headed back inside.

Clara peeked in and noticed he was at the console, fiddling with it. While she watched him running around the console, she suddenly heard a high pitched shrieking and spun around, watching in horror as an ostrichlike bird soared over the TARDIS, circled and landed twenty feet in front of her. The body of the bird resembled an ostrich but the neck and feet resembled a velociraptor. The bird creature ruffled its feathers and eyed Clara with pale yellow eyes. It squawked and opened its mouth, revealing a mouth filled with long jagged teeth. Clara gasped as the beast started to charge her and she quickly ducked back into the TARDIS and slammed the door shut.

The Doctor looked up from what he was doing at the TARDIS.

"No, stay outside. The TARDIS needs to be repaired and I'm about to start the…"

He trailed off and stared at the front door in shock when the bird hit the door hard and began to squawk and screech while it clawed at the wood.

"Big ostrich bird wants to eat me," Clara said as the shrieking and scratching continued.

"Damn it, what else could go wrong today," the Doctor growled as he walked to the right side of the console. "Cover your ears, Clara."

Clara put her hands over her ears and winced when the Doctor pushed a button and a high pitched shriek came from outside the TARDIS. The Doctor watched the monitor while he increased the noise and Clara clamped her hands over her ears and ran to him.

"There! That's sorted," the Doctor said when he pushed the button and the noise stopped. "He might be loud but my TARDIS is louder. I just amplified a very unpleasant noise through an outside speaker and now the bird has left."

"Good, I hope it never comes back," Clara said as she took her hands away from her ears.

"At least we've had a sampling of the wildlife here," the Doctor said. "Unfortunately, we have to leave the TARDIS so she can repair herself."

"Brilliant. We're gonna be chased by giant turkeys the moment we step outside the door."

"Not to worry, Clara. I have a solution. Wait here," he said before exiting the room.

Clara milled around, waiting for him to come back. Finally, after ten minutes, he returned with two small metal discs.

"Personal forcefields," he said as he came over to her. "They can repel most things. I'm hoping that if that buzzard comes back, he won't be able to eat us."

"But even if that keeps him away from us, how will we make it leave?" Clara said.

The Doctor smiled.

"I have a solution for that as well. But for now, let's go before the TARDIS starts repairing herself around us."

He pushed down on the disc and Clara watched as a pale blue forcefield shot out of it. The Doctor put it in her pocket and adjusted it so the forcefield covered her from head to toe. Then he did the same with himself and when they were ready, he motioned for her to follow him. Clara walked behind him, noticing that the Doctor was able to open the door without any resistance from the forcefield. She figured that they had still had free motion but anyone who tried to grab from the outside would be repelled. As she stepped outside with the Doctor, she froze when she saw the bird. He was standing thirty feet away, eyeing them warily.

"I see our friend hasn't given up yet," the Doctor said, looking down and reaching into his coat pocket. "I suppose I will have to be more assertive and teach him a lesson about attacking…"

"Doctor!" Clara said, grabbing his arm.

The Doctor looked up and noticed the bird was charging them again. He sighed and reached into his pocket, producing a small black pistol.

"Sorry, my friend. But you won't make a meal of us," he said as he aimed the pistol at the bird.

"Doctor, wait!" Clara said, alarmed that he was going to shoot it.

She watched in horror as he fired a laser bolt at it. And then she was shocked when instead of dropping dead, the bird vanished in a flash of white light. Clara frowned and looked around.

"What did you do?" she said to him.

"Watch," the Doctor said, his eyes twinkling.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clara saw another flash of light about a half mile to the right of her. She looked over and noticed the confused bird had been teleported away from them.

"Transmat pistol, something I came up with recently," the Doctor said. "If big and scaly wants to come back for another go, he'll find himself teleported to the other side of the planet."

Clara watched while the bird stared at them silently from a distance before turning and flying away from them.

"Ah, it does have some common sense after all," the Doctor said as he put the pistol back in his pocket. "Well, I think we should try to find out where we are and see if there is more than killer ostriches here. Coming?" he said, crooking his arm.

"Always," Clara said, threading her arm through his.

The Doctor smiled at that before he and Clara walked off in search of intelligent life.

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