Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)

12: Strategizing

"So," Thor asked as we walked back through the manor. Already, I was starting to get a mental map of the place. If I kept this up, soon I'd be able to get around without getting lost. "What else do you do in your spare time? Besides lifting weights I mean. And youga?"

"Yoga," I corrected. "I like to swim, I like watching baseball and I play a friendly game of it every year against the the Boston Fire Department. We've lost for the last five years and they tease us about it every chance they get."

"What's baseball?"

I realized that baseball didn't exist here. "Oh, it's a sport on Earth. Basically, you have a two teams of nine, and one team hits the ball with a bat and tries to run around three bases back to where they hit from to score points. They play nine rounds and the team who scored the most runs win." I felt I was doing a terrible job of explaining the American past time. "It's more fun to play than it is to explain."

"What else do you like to do?"

"I like going to the shooting range."

"Do you use a gun or a bow?"

I was surprised that he knew what that was. "You have guns here?"

"No, but I've done some study on Midgard, apparently those are your preferred weapons now. Though you still use bows for sport, don't you?"

"Yes we do. Or at least some of us do, I grew up in the metro outside Boston so I never really went hunting."

"But you learned to use a gun? Why? Did you fear you'd be attacked?"

"That's part of it," I admitted. "I moved to the city when I was twenty-one and got my conceal and carry permit as well as my Glock, Besty for protection. But I grew up around firearms too, my dad had a Glock as well and a twelve gauge rifle. He never made a secret of it and taught me to properly use them when I was young. I could've passed a gun control exam by eight with no problem." My mother hadn't been thrilled with that at all, but Dad had been adamant that I learned so I would know that a gun was not a toy and should never be treated lightly.

Thor smiled. "Are you any good?"

I crossed my arms, smirking. "I'm the best."

"Isn't that arrogant?"

I shrugged. "Yes, but at least it's honest. I've never missed a shot."

"Not even when your father was training you?" He said with a sly smile and I felt my face flame.

"That doesn't count."  Thor chuckled as we stopped outside my room.

"Whatever you say," he said, blue eyes sparkling with good humor. "Perhaps you could give me a demonstration of your weapon sometime?"

SIf had already asked for the same thing. I made a mental note to myself to make sure I did the demonstration with both of them present. Since guns didn't exist here, I knew replacing my ammo wouldn't be possible and therefore, I wanted to conserve it as much as possible. "Sure, and maybe I'll try to teach you more about baseball. It's more fun than I made it sound."

"I'd like that." There was a genuine warmth in his tone that I appreciated and I felt myself smile again.

"I would too," I said, surprised to find that I meant it. "Well, I think it's best we say goodbye; I really need to shower." I laughed a bit then, trying to ignore the sour smell hanging around me.

"I'll leave you to it then, farewell."

"Good bye," I said, feeling a tiny bit off put by the outdated word but let it go in the same instance. We weren't even from the same planet and I'd have to get used to things like that while I was here. I twisted the handle and shut the door behind me, peeling off my sweaty clothes and heading for the bathroom and in retrospect, I wished I would've waited to strip as it took me a bit of tinkering with the knobs to get the shower going and shivering, I stepped in quickly and yelped as the scalding water touched my skin. Hastily, I turned it down to a reasonable temperature and settled underneath the rain shower head as the glass turned foggy with steam. And under the pattering of warm water, I began to think about what had occurred.