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"Theta, will you come here?"
"But I want to go exploring with Koschei."
"And you can, but its cold outside, so you have to dress up warm."
"It's not cold."
"Yes it is. Here. I made you a scarf, will you at least put it on?"
"Mother, it's huge, like a million of me. I'll drown."
"It's not a million of you, don't be silly. You'll grow into it."
"If I regenerate into a giant."
"We don't joke about regeneration Theta, remember?"
"Yes, Mother. Can I go exploring with Koschei now?"
"Take the scarf with you at least."
"What's with the scarf?"
"Mother made it, she said I had to wear it because it was cold."
"I think she expects you to be really tall when you grow up."
"Yeah. Look, what's that?"
A fluff of something white landed on Theta's nose.
"Snow," Koschei smiled. "It's snow."
"Maybe we should get back."
"I thought you were the adventurous one."
"I guess we could stay for a bit. But the sky looks nasty."
"We'll be fine for a little bit. There's only a small amount of snow."
The snow was getting thicker faster and faster and Theta stood up.
"Are you going?"
"I think I should."
"But it doesn't take long to get home."
"But your house is only over there, it's easy for you. I have to walk all the way over the fields."
"Oh. I suppose so. Maybe we could explore more when the snow settles."
"Or I read about these things Earth children do when it snows. They have snowball fights and build snow humans and make snow angels. Maybe we could do some of them."
"You read about Earth too much."
"It's such a fascinating planet though." Theta looked at the snow and picked up the scarf, wrapping it around his neck. "See you tomorrow, Koschei."
"Bye, Theta."
"Snowed in?"
"It's too thick, you can't go outside, it goes half way up the door."
"But I was going to go and meet Koschei. What am I supposed to do instead?"
"Read a book."
"But I've read lots of books. Can't I go outside, please Mother?"
"No, it's too dangerous. You know what you can do? Make another scarf."
"But I don't know how."
"I'll show you. Earth children do it all the time."
"They do?"
"It's called knitting, you can make lots of things. I'm going to show you how to make a scarf."
"Okay, Mother."
"First of all you have to make the stitches look, see?" She showed him and he watched avidly, sitting next to her so he could see exactly what she was doing. "Now you try."
Several hours later, he was on his fifth row.
"In. Wrap around. Over. Push off. Look Mother, see I did it!"
"Good boy, Theta. Well done. You can carry on if you want, but I need to go and sort dinner out, all right?"
"Yes Mother."
He picked up some more wool, the snow still not having receded. His scarf was growing in length. He'd tied knots to hold the different colours together, which left lumps, but he could think of another way to attach them.
He had decided stripes would be nicest.
It took ages, months and months. The snow had gone and summer had started by the time he finished.
"Here you go, Mother."
"Oh, Theta, it's lovely. It's very long."
"Longer than mine. Because you're bigger than me."
"Thank you very much, Theta."
Years later, Theta had become the Doctor and left Gallifrey behind, travelling the universe in a rickety old TARDIS. One of his adventures had taken him to 16th Century Earth where he met Nostradamus and Madam Nostradamus.
Madam Nostradamus was captivated by his tales of Gallifrey, including the scarf he had made his mother.
Before he left, she presented him with a gift of a scarf she had knitted from his descriptions. He put it in the TARDIS.
After his third regeneration into his fourth body he picked it up.
This regeneration was a scarf wearer.