Finding My Place

Scrimmage

I was really looking forward to the scrimmage. I dressed with care; only the dark black-green pants I wore signified my status as a valkyrie. I had a surprise as well; Uncle Steve had commissioned me a new shield and helmet from the Folkvangr smiths. I now had a beautiful crescent-shaped shield that had a Greek meander around the edge as a homage to my heritage and a knotwork wolf, Odin's symbol; the design in the steel was inlaid with that golden metal the Asgardians preferred, and it was a real thing of beauty. The shape allowed me better sightlines, since the straps on the inside were placed so that when I brought  my arm up, my eyes were in the small crescent, protecting more of my head. The helmet was based on my headgear design but covered the back of my head, and Uncle Steve said that he'd consider it a personal favor if I wore it. So I kind of had to; he's so polite and rational that you feel bad if you say no, which I rather think he counts on. The helmet had a raised metal crest, kind of like a short mohawk, that suggested a Corinthian-style helmet with its impressive horsehair crest without being so gaudy. Or attention-drawing. The same meander was present along the edges and the flat top of the little crest, and on the sides were ravens; the inlay here was niello. It looked damned impressive.

We went over en masse, and the commanders of each side met while we were all sorting ourselves out. I saw Flutterstring on the Valhalla side; he noted my lack of bow and presence among the swordsmen and smirked at me. I gave him a resigned smile and shrugged. When the commanders returned, we got our orders. The unit I was temporarily assigned to was Sif's, which meant that we were prominently in the front.

Odin signaled, and his archers loosed their arrows. Ours returned fire, as we held our shields up and they clattered off; when they were done, the lines closed. Uncle Bucky kind of sidestepped me so that we didn't have to square off against each other, which was good; he rolled his eyes at me and I smiled cheerfully. I fought well and gave a good accounting of myself even though I got some cuts, and I dropped back through our lines casually and edged over to the treeline.

I grabbed my bow and the two quivers of armor-piercing arrows that I had now, and went to a tree I'd scoped out earlier, climbing quickly and quietly. It was a deciduous tree, a kind not familiar to me from Earth, and its abundant foliage gave me excellent coverage. I slid on my archer's ring, took a deep breath to help center myself, and nocked my first arrow. My rate of fire was ten arrows a minute, and I couldn't keep up that speed for long. Additionally, I needed to get out of that tree before somebody pinpointed my location and came for me. So General Steve and his commanders had given me rather radical targets--to take out as many of Odin's commanders and top fighters as I could, even though that would make them targets the next time. I smiled and drew my bow.

Of Odin's commanders, one was dead, one was Uncle Bucky, and four remained. I nailed the unrelated four so fast nobody knew what hit them. Then I took out the remaining six valkyries--including Alex and Dagny--Flutterstring, and Gunnar. I then sighted on Uncle Bucky rather reluctantly, but Odin stepped in front of him to voice an order, and I raised my eyebrow as the arrow slammed into Gungnir. His eye snapped around and found me instantly. I shinnied down the tree immediately and went into phase three of my orders. I mounted the horse, pleased with the fit I'd managed to achieve on the saddle, and the horse trotted to a clearing, where she took off. With no valkyries left, nobody was watching the sky anymore, suckers, and we came from behind. I shot the last of my arrows in one quiver, getting more of the best warriors, then the horse zoomed down and hit the ground running. She tore through groups of warriors and I shot when all her hooves were off the ground. We were coming around for another shot at Bucky when I heard General Steve's piercing whistle, and we immediately stopped our carnage.

To be honest, there wasn't much left of the Valhalla force on their feet, and it was the most silent battlefield I'd ever seen. The horse's heavy breathing was the loudest thing.  Odin strode toward us, and I decided to stay put in my saddle for safety. The horse and I had made a mess of Odin's army. General Steve and Sif came over from the Folkvangr side, Uncle Bucky following behind Odin, and I kept my face neutral. Odin looked from Steve and Sif to me and the horse, assessing and judging. He looked at the shaft of Gungnir, but the head of the arrow was completely buried in the wood. "I concede, Sif," he said, and she nodded. He couldn't do anything else, really; the Folkvangr warriors now outnumbered his by about three to one, even with the losses they'd incurred.