The Doctor was lost.

He looked around, at the hustle and bustle of the high street. Shoppers seemed to be walking past him, in speeded-up motion. Unless he was the one who had slowed down...

He tried to tell if he could see where he had left the TARDIS.

He had left the TARDIS, hadn't he?

Or had the TARDIS left him..?

Choosing at random, he started to walk along the pavement, all the while looking out to see if he could recognise anything of the location he was in. Some landmark that would remind him if he had been here before...

But as he tried to look at the shops, he could swear that the shops were part of the speeded-up motion, too. They seemed to blur, even after he blinked to check his vision was clear...

He stepped across the side road, and whilst he was looking at the other side of the road, a car came up and knocked him down.

***

There was a pain in his back now.

When he opened his eyes, he was somewhat perturbed to see that he wasn't walking along the high street. But nor was he recuperating on a hospital bed. A mixed blessing, that.

He was on the verge of a roadside. As he got to his feet, he saw that he was along some country lane. Neither direction appeared any more promising, so he shrugged, wincing at the pain, then set off along the road.

As he turned a sharp corner, he saw that the road ran on down a slope, before stopping and becoming more of a track. It seemed to lead down to a river.

Since the road he had come from looked no more promising, he pressed on.

***

He stood at the water's edge, looking down as the flow seemed to lick at his shoes. He knelt down, picking up a pebble. As he stood up, he winced at the pain in his back, but still tossed the pebble across the water, managing to skim the surface half a dozen times.

Then he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Glancing behind, he saw a tractor was bearing down at him. He waved to signal that there was no way for him to pass, but the tractor just hooted at him indignantly.

Desperate, the Doctor turned and walked into the water, moving cautiously along, moving to one side to see what the tractor did.

As he watched, the tractor plunged into the water, but as it was so shallow, and the tractor's wheels were so big, it moved quite easily along the riverbed. It travelled for maybe fifty metres, then without warning, it drove off up another path on the other side of the river, which the Doctor deduced must correspond with the one he had come down.

Sensing he had nothing to lose, he decided to keep walking along, and see where this new path led.

***

The current was strong, but the Doctor hadn't reached his age without learning a few techniques in focussing the mind. He waded confidently across the river, reaching the path, and readying himself for new discoveries.

There was another tractor coming towards him.

For a moment, he thought it was the same tractor come back, but the colour and style were different. This must be a busier route than he had thought.

He moved out of the way, and his foot slipped on a stone. As his arms flailed for balance, he felt the current start to drag him along, and he forgot all about the tractor.

***

The river was moving faster than he had thought, and he felt himself bumping into its banks, then rebounding into the flow and carrying on. As the river seemed to bend, he had a brief thought about the way matter must travel through a u-bend.

The banks were overgrown with thistles and other weeds, and he didn't fancy climbing out here. Perhaps there were safer areas further on. He would have to go with the flow to find out.

Sure enough, he could see the greenery falling away, and a likely spot to climb out drifted into view. He struck out for the side of the river.

But try as he might, he couldn't swim faster than the river flow. Indeed, he could almost think it had got stronger as he exerted more effort. Perhaps there was a connection somehow. But if he did nothing, he would still float on, so he was stuck whatever he tried to do.

As he passed a wooden foot-bridge, he thought he saw someone stood, looking down at him. He tried to signal to get their attention, and make it seem that he was not in fact just out for a swim, but was in distress, when he heard a strange laugh.

It was a snigger. A chortle. It was the figure on the bridge - no, it was the man on the bridge.

As he tried to contemplate the new questions this posed, he felt his jacket beginning to drag him down below the surface, and the Doctor found himself wondering about the wisdom of wearing velvet, when he submerged.

Panicking, he thrust his way forward, striving for air -

***

- and found himself forcing his way through a hedge.

Deciding that this was as good a time as any for a really good frown, the Doctor looked back at the hedge. He even stuck his head into it, but only tentatively, in case he should be sucked back into the river. But no, it was just a hedge into a field. Quite a nondescript little field of grass.

But he was now standing on a path. It ran between two fields, and it had evidently been there a long time. Now, which way should he go?

As he looked in both directions, he saw the man from the bridge.

So, that was the way to go. Eager, he walked along the wooden slats, oblivious to the overgrown nettles and thistles that creeped at either side. He was only concerned with what lay ahead.

***

Over another stile, and he saw that the path divided into three parts. The path he had been taking, which lay straight ahead. Also two parallel paths, both of which rose steeply along grass banking at either side. Idly, he heard a buzzing, which he wondered might be the sound of grass snakes, but was soon clearly just the overhanging wires of an electricity pylon.

He continued straight along. The roads less travelled could wait. He couldn't be deterred from his meeting with this man, this... tormentor? Who had revelled in his anguish, and was clearly up to some scheme against him.

***

The path actually led up a slippery, muddy incline, and he had to take care as he walked. He noticed a large stone bridge, and made an idle hypothesis about railway lines.

As he stepped over a small stone step, he found himself with two opposing directions. With no clues, he panned right, and found an open gate led into a wide green field. He took the opportunity to fill his lungs with the fresh, pure air of the countryside.

Then he heard a cough.

As he turned around, he saw the man from the bridge in the distance. So, he should have gone the other way. Well, never mind that now.

***

The man was standing on the far side of a bridge. As the Doctor approached, the growing noise of traffic that he had heard before, but ignored as unimportant, finally revealed itself.

The motorway buzzed with traffic, and the Doctor wondered what time of the day it was to produce so much traffic. Though it seemed like daylight, he was being cautious after earlier escapades.

"Well? Is this our meeting place, or is it just a diversion for more of your games?" He found he was surprised at the harsh edge to his tone. Clearly, he was more upset than he had realised.

The man on the bridge said nothing.

"Ah-ha! I've got it! You're some kind of bridge sprite! You're playing games with me because I ignored your bridge before!"

The man frowned, and shook his head.

"No? Oh, I thought that was a pretty good guess, too. Go on, I give up."

"No, you don't, Doctor. You never give up." The man moved closer, and started trying to grapple with him.

The Doctor found he was strangely pleased that he did not recognise the voice, although he seemed fairly strong. "I'm sorry, for the record, have we met somewhere before?"

"Not like this. I know you from a distance."

"Well, the world does look blue and green..."

"You can cut that right out."

"Sorry. Give me a clue, I've been to more planets than I've had hot dinners, and I've got rather a lot on my mind!"

"Such a glib tongue, Doctor. Your reputation does you an injustice."

"Mmm, did sound a bit glib, didn't it? Not like me. Anyway, what do you mean about my reputation?"

"I think you know perfectly well what I mean!"

"I assure you, you're making a huge mistake. I wish I did know you-"

There was a blinding flash, and when the Doctor had managed to rub the after-image from his retinas, he could see that his assailant was standing away from him, wringing his hands, and his face had an expression of seething misery.

"Hold on! I do recognise you now!"

"Yes, well, you would now, wouldn't you?" His tone was pretty downcast, and he emphasised 'now' as if it was perfectly obvious what was going on.

"You were a djinn, weren't you? I returned you to your prison in a cave on Malfastar! Goodness, that was a while ago..."

"I know, Doctor! Don't you think I spent the intervening time waiting for a chance, waiting for someone else to chance along and release me? Millennia of tedium trapped in a chocolate box!"

"Yes, I remember. I hope you learned your lesson."

The djinn stared at his nemesis. "Learned my lesson? How could I learn my lesson? I've been driven mad with boredom!"

"Oh, that's a shame. I was rather more determined in those days, wasn't I?"

"Yes, and you have also shifted across most of time and space! I thought you would be easy to locate on Malfastar, but no, I have to catch you by chance, as your craft travelled near to my star system."

"Oh, so you hijacked the TARDIS, and brought me here. This is Earth, I assume?"

"I have no idea. It was just the first convenient little hellhole I could find for you! To torment you, to hurt you. Doctor, I wanted to make you suffer, as I suffered during the time of my incarceration!"

"Right. Well, fair enough, I guess you've a reasonable grudge to bear."

"What? Reasonable? You talk as if you're doing this sort of thing all the time!"

The Doctor sheepishly nodded.

"Actually, that makes a lot of sense. I couldn't quite believe you were so vile as to cause pain to me and me alone. Yes, as part of a wider pattern of misery-making, that makes things a lot clearer."

"I know. I'm despicable, aren't I? I've done some terrible things over the years. You wouldn't believe how many people I've had to interfere with, to stop them in their paths of conquest and destruction. I mean... it must be millions, by now."

The djinn stared at him, half-stunned, half-curious. "You never struck me as the evil type, Doctor."

"No, I do look innocent, don't I? Wearing green helps." The Doctor sighed with exaggeration. "I really feel sorry for having caused you trouble. You know, djinn, I wish you'd never met me."

The djinn was nodding, then reflexively granting the wish, and managed one last look of shocked horror at his foe.

Then he disappeared.

***

Malfastar's marketplace was a throbbing bustle of activity, where merchants dealed, and gullible-yet-rich citizens bartered for mystic treasures.

One such visitor was a tall man with frizzy hair and a long brown overcoat. He had spotted a sealed tankard, and in the absence of any giveaway chess motifs on the design, had seriously considered putting in an offer for it.

But then, just as suddenly, he put the bottle down and moved on.

***

So did the setting.

Indeed, when the Doctor finished rubbing his eyes again, he found himself sat in a chair in the console room. The gramophone had long finished playing, and the fire was low in the grate.

Had he been here all the time?

Sighing, he put the book on his lap down to the floor, and stood up to set in some new co-ordinates. Just at random, he didn't feel like planning ahead.

He felt a pain in his back. But that was just stiffness from nodding off in an uncomfortable position.

Wasn't it?