Pure

3

Fandral crosses his arms and stands beside me.

"Hello." Thor says to the monster of rock, it roars loudly. "I accept your surrender." The marauders roar with laughter. Thor then spins Mjolnir and uppercuts the beast with it, reducing it to a pile of pebbles. Thor looks around at the marauders who have fallen silent. "Anyone else?" They all slowly start to drop their weapons and fall to one knee.

...

Later that night, after the marauders are locked away, there's a celebration. I change back into my gown and drape a brown fur cloak over my shoulders. When I reach the celebration, Fandral walks to me.

"Welcome, Princess." He says, holding out his arm to me. I link mine in his and place my other hand on his arm. "Ready to celebrate? We fought a challenging battle today and arose victorious, I do believe we deserve this."

"Of course, there are plenty of lovely women for you to win over here tonight." I say to him.

"Ah, that's where you're wrong, Your Highness. There's only woman here that I'm trying to win over." I look over to see him gazing at me. I feel red rushing to my cheeks as I look away, smiling. We sit among the warriors and drink with them. Fandral rests his arm on the back of my chair as he laughs with everyone. I smile at it all, everyone coming together for a victory. The celebration goes on for hours, when it's over Fandral walks me to my room in the palace.

"I had fun tonight, Fandral. Thank you for spending it with me." He smiles.

"I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with anyone else." I lean forward and kiss his cheek. I walk into my room and turn to face him one more time.

"Goodnight, Fandral." He nods.

"Goodnight, Princess." I slowly close the door and turn around to lean on it, smiling to myself

...

Commotion erupts the next day. Thor has brought a human to Asgard. Father has called me to them. I walk in to see a woman laying in front of the nurses.

"I need you to tell me what is hiding within this woman." Father says. I nod and walk to the woman.

"Could I see your arm?" I ask her. She furrows her eyebrows at me.

"Who are you?" She asks. I smile and tilt my head.

"I am Princess Aurora of Asgard. I am not going to hurt you. What is your name?" I ask her. She stares at me in confusion.

"My name is Jane Foster." I grin.

"So you're Jane Foster. I am Thor's sister." She looks at Thor, then back at me. She finally gives me her arm. I carefully take her elbow in my one hand and trail my other hand down the inside of her forearm. A red trail of magic swirls through her bloodstream, I raise my eyebrows at it and turn to father.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Thor asks.

"Father, it's the Aether." I tell him.

"That's impossible." Father says.

"Whatever resides within her, it's defending her." Nurse Eir says.

"No, it's defending itself." Thor says. He looks at father. "What is the Aether?"

"Come with me. There are relics that predate the universe itself. What lies within her appears to be one of them. The Nine Realms are not eternal. They had a dawn as they will have a dusk." Father says. "Aurora, warn your mother, this weapon is more dangerous to us than you think."