“No, my dear, I fear that you now have an awful secret. Ymir has kissed you.”
From the scowl on his face, I knew this was no simple embrace. It meant so much more, but what?
Baldr
Asgard Tavern
Baldr sat and drank his mead in the tavern.
A hand slapped down on his shoulder. Thor. “It’s not like you to drink alone.”
“Well, I don’t seem to know what I am doing on the best of days, and now, I don’t understand,” Baldr replied.
He looked up to Thor, his brother, who seemed to right almost any wrong with a hammer and magical gloves. Their father respected Thor above all.
“I told you it wouldn’t be easy, but you didn’t want to listen,” Thor said, picked up his mead and drained his glass.
“You might have predicted this, but I thought once she was here things would be fine. She’d be safe and all would be right. I could begin to court her and make her mine.”
“Women don’t like to be told what they are to do,” Thor said. “Take it from me, the women of Midgard are interesting creatures. They love strongly, but first, you have to get them to that place.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“What did you do in your dreams together?”
“I wooed her,” Baldr said.
“And have you done that since she’s been here, or have you locked her away in your golden palace? She has the worries of her people on her shoulders. By taking her away from that, you will create resentment. Find a way to fix it.”
“I don’t have a hammer to kill an entire army in one fell swoop.”
“You are a god, the son of Odin. Are you afraid of a mere mortal army?” Thor asked.
“Of course not.”
“Then show her that. Women love it when a man stands alone, armed with a single weapon, and it feels like they can take down more than a garrison, the whole damned army in fact. That is why she will always idolize her father and grandfather, and I have watched those two in battle. You should visit her grandfather. He is in Valhalla. He will surely give you some insight into how you can impress her.”
“Can’t I just love her? Can’t that be enough?”
Thor picked up his large horn of mead and drained it. “Love is a verb which requires action.”
Baldr recalled watching emotions play across Nanna’s face. She appeared no older than eighteen, and although experienced in the ways of war, other things seemed to be missing. Delight had faded away to pure scrutiny, to shock, and then finally, to shame. Her shoulders once squared, had sunk, and she’d crossed her arms.
“Come with us, dear brother, and we shall show you how to gain the heart of a woman,” Thor said, as Loki pulled up a chair and joined the conversation.
“The only thing you two know about are deadly adventures involving bloodshed,” Baldr said.
“That is quite true, beloved Baldr, but you will never understand a warrior woman if you don’t know how to fight for her,” Loki countered.
Baldr drained his own horn of drink. “If that is what it takes, then we must go.”
Thor chuckled and twiddled his red beard in his fingers. “There is nothing like a just war, and I know right where to start.”
“You don’t mean that skirmish over in Midgard,” Loki said.
“There is always someone fighting in Midgard. That’s part of the fun of it,” Thor replied.
“You know, that is your problem,” Loki said, “You’re too likable. She probably thinks you’re a weakling, maybe even one who can’t care for her. Women like strong men, and that boyish smile you continue to give me doesn’t say vengeful deity.”
“Don’t you remember what it was like to be on the battlefield and smash things up?” Thor asked. “I don’t know how many things I’ve destroyed over the years. War is my mistress.”
“The way you fight; she’s not a good one who will keep you satisfied,” Loki said.
“She leaves me begging for more,” Thor defended.
“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”
Thor gripped Mjolnir’s handle. “I’ve had enough, Loki.”
“But I’m just getting started. Come on. You’re referring to war as if it were a woman who is there to serve you. Do you see the misplaced logic? War cannot serve, and it surely cannot provide pure satisfaction as a woman can.”
Getting involved in a conversation between Loki and Thor was like being in an argument between different colored flames.
Instead, Baldr’s thoughts moved away from their verbal tussle to the woman who needed to know him as more than just a handsome face. He could feel the smallest tinge of attraction in her, but there had to be more to cultivate love.
If he did what gods do, would she forgive him or consider him a traitor, fickle even?
Only another trip to Midgard would prove it, yes or no.
“Okay, let’s get this warring party on the road,” Baldr said.
The word “war” got the other two gods to quieten. Thor hopped up. “Come. I know exactly where we need to go.”
The battle raged on between the two parties: one true to the Norse gods, the other aligned with foreign gods. Loki, Thor, and Baldr stood on the hillside as the battle raged below. Men rushed forward and their swords hacked and stabbed. Some sliced the air and happened to fell a man, while others cowered and sought to run away.
A Valkyrie came and stood beside the gods.
“What are the three of you doing here today?” Kara asked. “I didn’t think this was a battle that would draw your attention, Thor.”
“Ha-ha,” Thor said. “You’re too sick to play and should be attending to your own malaise in Valhalla, or has the All-Father decided to retire you?”
Baldr listened to the banter between the two. Kara was the fittest fighter he’d ever seen, and she could probably take Thor out if he didn’t have his hammer.
“When
