I sat up with a start. Light streamed through my windows, but that wasn't what had woken me. I glanced around my room, everything seemed to be in its proper place. My eyes lingered on the pictures of my family, especially the one with my uncle Randolph. The picture stirred up painful memories, it had only been a couple of days since I had last seen my uncle when he fell into Helheim. A loud bang brought me back to the present, that must have been what had woken me. A few seconds later I heard the sound of of impatient knocking at my door. I pulled myself out of my bed, trying to ignore the aches and pains still left from my recent adventures. I made my way to the door, while the intense knocking continued.

"Coming!" I yelled, the knocking didn't stop. When I finally reached the door, I pulled it open, not sure what to expect, and found myself face-to-face with Alex. Alex stood there, her hair died it's regular green color. She wore her traditional outfit of a pink-and-green argyle sweater-vest over a white tee and skinny lime green jeans. She looked pretty good, but after a few seconds I realized I had been staring at her without saying anything. I cleared my throat and attempted to say something intelligent.

"Huh…?" I managed, very smart.

"You are such an idiot." she said with an exasperated sigh as she tucked a strand of green hair behind her ear. "I'm having a slight problem, you may have heard" she continued, glancing back worriedly at her room. Now I was worried, not much scared Alex.

"Well, what's the problem?" I asked, trying to think of what could've possibly happened.

"It's better if you see for yourself" She sighed, and yanked me into the hallway starting towards her room.

"Woah! At least give me some explanation" I complained as I proceeded to almost fall on my face. Once I recovered I saw that she had stopped and had turned back to face me. She sighed.

"Look, I know, because of who you are, you are going to freak out when I tell you this" I began to respond, but she silenced me with a look, "It's Sam, I was trying to teach her how to use her powers and let's just say it didn't turn out as well as I hoped" My stomach dropped, Sam was scared to use her shaping power for fear that her father, Loki, would take control of her.. I was the one who had urged her to attempt to learn to harness her powers like Alex could. If something had happened to her, it was all my fault.

"See, I told you so," Alex said exasperated, my guilt must of shown on my face. "You're freaking out. Look, just come and see what the problem is before you have a meltdown, okay?" She turned once again and I followed her. We finally reached her door, and after glancing at my face again, probably to ensure that I wasn't about to break down crying, she pushed open the door to her room. I braced myself, expecting the worse. Instead, I was confused, in the middle of Alex's room sat a tiny, yellow,

"Duck!" I yelped, "Sam is a Duck!?" In the center of Alex's room sat a very fluffy, very cute, and very angry looking duck. It was flying around the center grassy area of the room and looked so absurd I just stood in shock, then I looked at Alex.

"I knew this was a bad idea" she muttered under her breath. She started to close the door, but hesitated and seemed to change her mind. She turned and looked at me seriously, her pale amber and dark brown eyes piercing.

"Magnus, I need help okay. Sam has been stuck like a duck for almost an hour now, and I don't know what to do." She looked down at her feet, helpless. I felt horrible. Alex seemed truly terrified, and I was just standing here useless, for some reason the idea of her being so hopeless cut me. I straightened, I was going to help her no matter what.

I let out a breath "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm not being very helpful, just," I hesitated trying to think of a way to comfort her, and failing, "tell me what happened, and we can figure this out together." Her eyes found my face again, but this time I saw hope in them.

Alex proceeded to tell me everything, she had Sam practicing shapeshifting into different animals. Everything had been going fine, until Sam turned into a duck. Alex said that it normally took her a little bit to change form, but it was taking Sam way too long this time. Soon Sam started to panick as well, she had begun to fly around, knocking things over, creating the loud bang that had woken me up. She said that it was at that point that she decided to try and find help, and wound up at my door.

"Well," I began slowly, walking into Alex's room towards the now very loud duck, "I guess we could try and calm her down…"

"Don't you think I've tried that?" She shot me a glare "I've tried everything, she won't…" I silenced her with a look, I had an idea. Leaving Alex standing by the door, I moved closer to Sam and when I was a few feet away, I closed my eyes. Maybe Frey could lend me some help in this situation. I thought of calm memories, times of my mom and I hiking, her smiling at me, just spending time together. I opened my eyes and slowly reached down to where Sam had settled, now quiet, and picked her up in my arms. I closed my eyes again, calling upon more memories of happy times with my mom and I, and for a while it seemed to be working, but soon sad memories forced their way into my mind. My mother was gone, I would never see her again, images of hiking and joy were replaced with wolves and terror. I could feel the calm energy disappearing. I frantically searched for happy memories, searching for anything that would calm the now squirming duck in my arms, when suddenly a new face popped up into my mind: Alex.

Alex laughing at me, Alex smiling, Alex wrapping my arms around her waist, Alex just being Alex. I felt a wave of calm and happiness explode out of me. Suddenly Sam became a lot heavier in my arms, I open my eyes and in my arms was Sam, she looked terrified, but she was no longer a duck.

"Sam should be okay" Alex said as she closed the door to her room behind her. Now we were both standing in the hallway outside of her room.

I leaned against her door "What's she doing now?" I was worried, as soon as Sam had turned back into herself, Alex shoved me out of her room, saying something about helping her recover and telling me to get lost. I didn't.

"Sleeping," She responded. Alex began to pace outside her door, distracted. "How could I be so stupid!?" She yelled at herself, "I pushed Sam too hard, it's all my fault. If you hadn't been able to help her, she could have been stuck that way forever!" She stopped pacing and glanced abruptly at me, as if she had forgotten I was still there.

"Thank you Magnus, if you hadn't help me, I don't know what I would have done" She looked down at her feet, like giving me the compliment had embarrassed her. "I'm curious though," she continued, now looking at me quizzically, "What did you do to change Sam back?"

Now it was my turn to look embarrassed "Well," I started, trying to meet her gaze, "I thought of memories that made me happy, mostly memories of my mom and..." I hesitated, and began to stare at the floor, then took a deep breath and said, "...and you…" I looked up at her face, trying to gage her reaction. She was silent, I started to turn around, cursing myself for saying anything. Then Alex grabbed my arm, pulled me towards her and kissed me. Her soft lips pressed against mine, and suddenly my mind was clear, I was happier than I had ever been before. Alex stepped away and turned to open the door to her room without saying anything. As she walked through her doorway, she turned her head back to me and while flashing me her perfect smile, said

"You're a complete and utter idiot" then she walked into her room, closing the door behind her. I stood there for a couple seconds, then started towards my own room, smiling. For once, being called an idiot by Alex didn't bother me. In fact, it was the best feeling in the world.