Atypical (A Magnus Chase fan novel)

A Mini Sam

     I decided that she could get herself into serious trouble (mentally or physically, I wouldn't put it past anybody in Valhalla to do both) if she was left alone too long, so I waited fifteen minutes, making sure that my friends were occupied and busy, completely forgetting that I told Alex I'd meet up with her. When I finally couldn't take Jack's singing and chatting anymore, I told him to go back in pendant form, and stepped out into the corridor. There was no one.

     I walked to the end of the hall and pressed my ear to the door. I didn't hear anything, not even the squawking of the bird. Reluctantly, I pushed the door open silently, and walked into the room. Amara sat on the edge of her bed, her head in her hands. She looked up, alarmed, and jumped off the bed with a yelp. Faster than I could compute, she had leapt up to the rafters once again. Fear and anxiousness shone in her eyes, and she looked down at her hands like, how did I do that?

     "Woah, I'm not going to hurt you," I said backing up, my hands up in surrender. Her reflexes were amazing, even for an einherji.

     She didn't answer, her lips pressed together. Her fingernails dug into her palms. She took another step back into the darkness. I was stuck now. I didn't think I would get this far, and now I didn't know what to do. Stupid Magnus. I was considering pulling out Jack to maybe say something, wondering if it would be too much, when she spoke up.

     "Who are you?" Finally, something I could answer. I was a little low on brainpower, okay?

     "My name is Magnus Chase. I live down the hall," I said, pointing. "And I'm guessing you're Amara. I was the only one to notice your hiding spot, but I didn't think you'd appreciate me telling everyone else, right?" She nodded nervously. I continued, "It's not good to stay alone in your room for too long, so I came to check up on you. I know you must be pretty, um, confused," I finished lamely. She put her head in her hands again, closing her eyes, and then took her hands away, her eyes open, as if to confirm that this was not a dream. She focused on me.

     "So, this is real then? I'm...dead?" I nodded. This conversation was getting increasingly awkward. I decided to explain further, but Jack buzzed a message to me once again.

     Get her to come down first, he said. How though? My perfect excuse to get her down hit me. Literally. Her big blue bird that was being so quiet I forgot about it flew over and landed on my head heavily. I held my hand out to him to get him off, but he refused. I looked up at her.

     "Um, do you mind coming down? To get him off me please?"

     Silence. And then,

     "You won't...you won't kill me?" she asked. She looked worried for her bird's life.

     I felt like I was back at school, and the teacher just finished explaining something that hadn't made sense to me or the class for a long time, and everyone just goes ooooooh. Now I knew why she was so freaked out. How could I have forgotten? When I first came to Valhalla, I had hidden behind a potted plant in the lobby (no matter how pathetic it sounds) when kids were impaling each other with spears. Then I had thrown my sofa and punched a hole through the bathroom wall when I discovered my einherji strength. I had nearly lost it, and gone berserk. She was taking it much better than me.

     I smiled. "Nope." Still, she hesitated. And then, for whatever reason, she seemed to trust me, and jumped down more or less gracefully, ruined only by a little stumble. She looked up in amazement, as if trying to figure out the distance from the floor to the ceiling rafters. Also maybe wondering why they were made out of spears. I did too.

     "To answer your internal question, you're an einherji, plural einherjar. We can be demigods, a person that has one parent a god, or regular humans. We are brought here by our Valkyries if they think we died a heroic death. When we come to Valhalla, our bodies get a kind of upgrade, and we can do physical stuff that no normal person can do."

     Now that she had come down, I could see her better. Her eyes were a shocking, light grey, one that stood out with her coffee colored skin. Most people have dark eyes with her skin tone, so she really stood out. But the thing that surprised me most, was that her eyes were exactly like mine, in the sense where they had a kind of haunting, almost dead look, that was really startling. The look had served me well on the streets, but I wondered what it meant to her.

     She looked at me and held out her arm, beckoning for her bird, and he fluttered over to her and nestled himself on her shoulder. He fluffed up his feathers, and she stroked him, thought for a moment, and then said,

     "I knew about the einherji part. The bellhop told me." Then looking up at me she said, "I'm surprised Isa took to you. That's kind of why I trust you right now."

     "Isa? The bird?"

     She gave a small smile. "Yes, he is my hyacinth macaw. I miss my other birds too," she added sadly.

     "Birds in plural? How many animals do you have?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood. She seemed really...quiet. For someone who's life had done a few backflips anyway. She hesitated.

     "Sorry, I didn't mean to press." I said. From out of nowhere, a little gray cat slunk out of the bathroom, and walked over to Amara. He butted his head against her leg and curled up around her foot, purring contentedly. She looked up at me, embarrassed.

     "Okay no seriously, how did they get here? Are pets allowed?" I asked, secretly thinking, how come I don't get one? Then I realised that I didn't really like keeping animals anyway. They were amazing, but super messy. When I was in fourth grade, my mom got me a little blue budgie as a present, but when we went on a weekend trip to camp, we gave it to the neighbors to take care of. When we got back, it had died because it had nipped at a houseplant that was poisonous for birds. I was devastated, and my mom decided that we shouldn't get any pets for a while.

     "Search me," she responded. "I love animals. I have a lot of pets. But I have no clue how these guys got here."

     A knock on the door startled us, and Isa went fluttering to a tree, squawking. Amara scooped up the cat and looked at me accusingly, as if I had personally told on her or something.

     "Amara!" a very familiar voice called out. I walked towards the door to open it when Amara said,

     "Don't!" She took a step backwards, her eyes blazing with fear and defiance. She was seriously riled up, but she needed to calm down if she was going to get anywhere.

     "Come on, trust me," I said. She hesitated, maybe remembering how Isa had liked me. Then she nodded, and I opened the door.

     Sam looked at me confusedly. "Magnus? Where's Amara?" Slightly embarrassed, I moved aside so Sam could walk in. The cat jumped out of Amara's arms and streaked past me to the bathroom. Amara's eyes widened when she saw Sam, taking in her chain mail, her hijab, and her battle-ax hanging from her belt.

     "You! You took me to the- the gap thing and there was a horse, and the lightning- '' Sam winced as Amara stuttered about the Ginnungagap and her Valkyrie-ness, waving her hands weakly to imply any and every bit of crazy that had happened to her. Then Sam turned to me,

     "Uh, Magnus, thanks and all for whatever you were doing, but is it okay if we get a moment alone?" she asked. I shrugged and walked out of the room, where my friends were waiting for me in the hallway. Alex had her arms crossed, a smirk on her face.

     I plastered a smile on my face, praying I wasn't blushing. "Uh. What's up guys?"