The Soldier's Goddess

Chapter 1: The Soldier's Goddess

Hi, my name is Kari. I'm not your average woman, in fact I'm not even your average Asgardian. As for my age? Well, I am nearly 1100 years old, but in Earth terms, I am 23. I live on Asgard, in Odin's palace, and my older sister, Sif, lives across the hallway from me. She is part of Thor's warriors; the best Asgard, and the nine realms, have. They are amazing. Me, on other hand? I'm not as good as them, however, I am fluent in every single language in existence. I don't know how, or why, I was just born that way. It does come in handy though, when the All Father needs help translating for someone from another realm.

As I said, I'm not your average Asgardian. That's because my real dad was a Jotun. He and my mum fell in love, but before she could tell him she was pregnant, there came the War, and travel to Jotunheim was forbidden. She was heartbroken, but found love in my stepdad when I was a small child. He helped raise Sif and I as if we were his own. They had a son of their own too, our half brother Heimdall, the Guardian of Asgard's Rainbow Bridge, viewer of all realms.

My best friend growing up, was Loki. We did everything together, always getting into trouble together! One of my favourite memories was sneaking in to the palace kitchens with him. It was the All Father's birthday, and they were preparing a feast like no-one had seen before. They found us in our tree house two hours later, both pale, tinged with a touch of green, trying not to be sick from eating all the chocolate and lamb we had stolen. That was just what we did. Loki hadn't long discovered he had magic, so we would creep round the palace, testing it out. It wasn't until he go a little older that he began training, to hone it, to control it.

There wasn't really one thing that caused us to end up together, it just sort of happened. One day we are Kari and Loki, best friends and troublemakers, and then the next....... well I don't know, we were just kissing. We were in the tree house, as usual, laughing about our latest prank on an unsuspecting palace servant, and we turned to face each other, just as we finished laughing. I caught his eye and saw a twinkle I'd never seen before. I leaned in to him, as he did to me, and I felt his soft lips press against mine, the sharp intake of breath he took as we connected, his hand cupping the back of my head. When I told my parents we were dating, later that evening, they didn't seem that surprised. They said they thought we already were dating, so it wasn't much of a surprise. A bit like Sif and Thor, really.

I have a pet wolf, his name is Bjornolf, and used to love curling up to fall asleep in bed with me sometimes. He looks vicious to those who don't know him, but he is a softie at heart. Even going as far as to help Loki and I get into mischief when we were kids. He lives with mum and dad now, in the cottage I grew up in, but we still curl up when I go back to stay the night sometimes.