The sun was excruciatingly bright this morning. I didn’t appreciate it one bit. I slowly sat up, groaning the entire way. I smacked my lips together. It felt like I ate a wool blanket last night. Eyes squinted, I studied my surroundings, blinking constantly. It was very bright.

The air smelled charred and felt electrified. The ground was singed just a few meters from where I was slowly, painfully, groggily, rising. In the center of the field, right next to another singed patch of land, was a wooden dummy in the shape of a large ram. I knew it was a ram, because it had the skull of one latched to the neck. It had spiralling, shining purple horns and one of my arrow bolts in between it’s empty eye sockets. I shuffled my way over to it. As I got closer, I noticed that around the spot the lightning hit was the shattered bits of what looks like another wooden dummy. “Huh...”

As I turned back, and started unlatching the skull from the intact dummy, I noticed laying next to it, my pipe. Peeking inside, I noticed a large amount of residue of a large amount of Luxury. “Mmm.” I mumbled, sadly. I tapped out the remnants onto the ground, and stuck it between my teeth. Scooping up my gear and the skull, I made my way back to camp, squinting angrily against the sun.

I stumbled upon the embers of my camp. It was exactly as I left it the night before. I assume. Everything from last night was foggy. What I could remember was a lot of dancy colors and the taste of rainbows.

Next to the ashes of my small fire, was the bundle with my sword blade, wrapped in Papas old sleeping bag, where I assume I left it before wandering off on my trip. I latched it back onto the bottom of my bag, and stomped out the remaining embers. Satisfied, I scanned the area, double checking to see if I left any of my belongings.

Oddly, there was a set of footprints other than my own. They were gigantic, larger than any person could ever possibly be. I rubbed my eyes, assuming I was still have dazed and half baked, but when I opened them again, they were still there. Not only that, but when I bent down to take a closer look, I noticed that they led towards my camp, but never away. As if their owners just puffed out of thin air.

I vaguely remember talking to a man last night. Just as the Luxory was kicking in. He was kind and very tall and offered to do something. What was that again? It had something to do with my blade... The scar on my head thumped as I tried to recall the memory. I looked over to my bag, It would take a good ten minutes to undue everything alone. And I wanted home. I’m sure I would remember by than.

I shrugged off the vague memory, and headed back, skull sitting atop my head.

By the time I got home, it was well into morning and all were at work or school. So the only one at home at this time was Erak. As I walked down the driveway, the front door swung open, and he darted out with one of our largest glasses filled to the brim with water. He held it up to me, grinning ear to ear. “Mama says to drink water cuz cuz cuz the first high is like BAM!” he said proudly.

I gratefully grabbed the glass and chugged the water as fast as possible, releasing a loud audible sigh afterwards. I scooped up Erak, nuzzling his cheek. “Thank you very much, Erak! You are such a good helper!” I said, as he giggled, carrying him into the house.

As we passed the barrier that was the doorway, Erak jumped down and darted off with my glass. As I made my way to the living room, dropping off my gear and winter clothes along the way, I heard a stool sliding against the floor, and banging into the cupboards, then the faucet in the kitchen, followed by Eraks tiny footsteps behind me.

I fell onto the couch, eyes closed, sighing loudly. I felt the glass touch the bottom of my nose. It tickled, and caused me to snort. I could hear Erak gigling, and the water splashed around. “Erak stop squirming stop stquirming!” I shrinked, as he squealed with excitment.

“Drink, Hildr, drink!” He shouted, while constantly waiving the glass all over the place.

“There’s barely any water left! You gave more to the couch than to me, child!”

After the small struggle finally ended, I was left with a half emptied glass, and a soaked couch. As I sipped on the remaining water, Erak kicked his legs, happily, flipping through channels. He didn’t seem to have any particular channel in mind. “What was it like?” He finally asked.

I smiled into my glass. “What was what like?”

“The the the the thing!” he said, getting excited again. “The thing you did! The grown-up thing!”

“Hmmm...” I muttered, hiding my smile as best I could. It wasn’t very good. Erak couldn’t tell. “Maybe I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“Mean!” He scowled, pushing on me. “Mean mean mean!”

“Oh very well than!” I huffed dramatically. Jumping slightly, I half turned towards him. He did the same, grinning excitedly. Ready for a story.

“So, on the way towards my quarry, I stumbled out of our own realm, straying from Midgard and into the lands of magic!”

“Woooooah.” He said, wide eyed. The story hadn’t even started yet.

“Yeah, right?” I chuckled. “I made camp and watched as fire elves danced around me! Swaying and flickering as they went! Turning into a vibrant array of colors, shifting and changing with each step! Than I met a man. A traveler that spoke to me. He was the tallest man I had ever scene! The very air around him was charged with energy! He was Like a bolt of lightning!”

I spoke without even remembering these events. But even so, as each word left my mouth I knew it was as I said. That this all did happen. And that it all happened to me.

“He even offered to finish polishing my blade and craft a handle! So I left it with the man, who pointed me in the direction of my prey, and you wouldn’t believe what it was!”

“What was it! What was it!” He was practically bouncing. “Tell me tell me!”

“Just as I stumbled upon a clearing, after having a very stern talking to with some very impolite trees, it happened! BOOM BOOM!” I shouted, poking Erak each time. “Two lightning bolts rained down and struck the earth!”

“Just like that?!”

“Just like that!” I confirmed. “And right were they hit, two ginormous circles, runes all around! And from the runes, slowly rose up!” I moved my hands higher and higher as I spoke, towering over Erak. “Was Thor’s two mighty rams, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr!”

Erak gasped. “For real?!”

“So real!”

“What did you do?!”

“Well I pulled out my crossbow!” I started, pantomiming with each action. “I ran up, loading a bolt, and I shot Tanngrisnir right in the forehead!” I tapped Erak’s head, “BOP!”

“BOP!” He echoed, throwing his arms in the air. “Than what happened?!”

“Well than, I got-” I tossed Erak up, who giggled in response. “Knocked off my feet by Tanngnjostr while I was distracted! And I landed right on my butt!” I continued, throwing him back on the couch.

“Butt butt butt.” He laughed.

“Than, using the wit given to me by Wodinn, I tricked them into ramming into each other and shot them both dead!”

“BOP!”

“Exactly!”

“What about the sword?” He asked, breaking my train of thought.

“The what?” I blinked.

“Your grown-up sword. The one Thor powished.”

I smiled. “The man I left it to wasn’t Thor, sweet one.”

“But you said he was a lightning man. Thor’s a lightning man.”

This made me think. My head slowly turned over to the bundle, propped up against a wall. I rose up, and started walking towards it, Erak close behind. I undid the bindings and, right there on the floor, rolled it out for Erak and me to see.

The blade itself was a light blue, shining with a beauty I had never seen before. But than, the light caught the edge. That is when a spark of vibrant, pure, electrical purple I thought only existed in the skies of a stormy night danced across the edge of the blade. It did this every time light touched it, as if it was cutting through the light itself. Imprinted on the blade, right were I carefully carved it, in that same unbelievalbe purple, was the word, MEDVED. But now, just below it, carved in a detail that could never be done by my hand, was an intricate symbol of Mjolnir.

The handle. The handle brought tears to my eyes. It looked like it was made entirely out of oak as one solid peace. As if by magic. Dancing along the crossguard was what looked like the epic battle of Ragnarok, with Thor and Jormungandr meeting in the middle. All across the handle, which melted perfectly to my hand, were protective runes, some of which I could recgonise, but some that had the feel of something much older. And right at the pommel, yet again, was that intricatly carved image of Mjolnir, with a ram on either side.

“See, Hildr!” Erak said, shaking me from my teary eyed stupor, “It was Thor!”

“It really was...” I whispered. “Mighty Thor...”