It was too late to think about it as she raised her blade and faced her first true enemy. Her thoughts flickered to her brothers and she wished they were by her side, to her armor which should have been heavy on her shoulders instead of the silly decoration that passed for her chest plate.

She had a dress sword, dress armor, magic she'd only ever used to show off.

There was no one to help her but a useless guard, barely any bigger then she was next to the tall, tall monsters.

No time to worry about that.

So Aldrif struck.

And her first fight began.

Aldrif's first sword swing was defensive. The leader of the three monsters charged her and she met his icy swing with her blade and a gasp. She sent her shadow between his legs, trying to trip him a moment he stumbled "Get help." Aldrif didn't recognize her own voice as she gave the order.

Her icy eyes did not leave the enemy.

Another of the monsters prepared to edge past on her right.

"Run left!" She barked.

Her only ally slipped past, shoved past the third, numb looking monster, and was gone.

He at least seemed afraid of her now, but there were three of them and there was only so far confidence could take her before she got that spike of ice through her own heart.

She considered.

The second monster was smaller. She could last against him.

Aldrif commanded the shadow to continue wisping its way around the snarling first monster's feet and turned her sword on the smaller of the two, on the attack now. She managed to shove him back, falling against the wall of the narrow vault as she did so.

The larger monster screamed with rage and kicked off the shadows as Aldrif's concentration failed. It lunged at her and she screamed right back, throwing up her sword. She blocked the spiked arm again but this time her cold hands couldn't take the jar of impact.

Her only weapon sprang from her hands.

Aldrif kicked out, using the wall as leverage. The largest of the monsters fell back and the princess dove toward the blue relic. She clawed her way forward, stood, only to trip over the length of her dress. Landing on her knees, she quickly twisted to face the grinning monsters as they stomped nearer again.

Had she seriously hurried over to the one pedestal that didn't have a weapon?

Aldrif let out a hysterical laugh and, for lack of a better plan, held up her hands. Black shadows began to gather around both of them, gathering into a sharp point similar to the monster's ice weapon.

The third monster, already stepping back at the sound of the laugh, turned and disappeared.

Two monsters left.

They charged her as one and she managed to block the smaller one's swing completely. The larger one swung low and she had to deflect his blow, feeling the ice leaching toward her as it slipped past her side and buried in the relic's pillar.

The creature growled out an order she couldn't understand.

The blows came faster, swinging for her head, her arms, her legs. She blocked them all, feeling more and more desperate. Two of them. She was going to lose against two of them. Her death wouldn't even make a good story.

Oh, what did the story matter if she was going to die?

Aldrif struggled back to her feet and buried the spike of shadow in the smaller monster's side but it cost her her balance. In the split second she was open, blue fists came and shoved her violently against the wall of the vault. Her gold chest plate covered with frost and the princess began to shiver, losing her grasp on magic as the larger monster stepped over his bleeding companion and raised its arm for a killing blow.

Aldrif gritted her teeth and raised shaking, bare hands as her last defense.

Fear seemed to swallow her whole and the world became very far away.

And then a hundred stories up, her father stopped in the middle of declaring her brother king, finally sensing the intrusion.

"Frost giants."

It was the monster's turn to feel fear.

Aldrif felt as though the scene were happening to someone else as the Destroyer blasted its way through the remaining monster. She managed to turn her head to watch the gate close back up and then numb fingers struggled to unlatch the freezing chest plate. She wanted the dress off too if she was honest, but it turned out not to be an option as the chest plate proved too much for her shaking fingers to remove at the moment.

The monster she'd stabbed lay dead from the wound she'd given it, it's red eyes staring. Aldrif couldn't quite make it to her feet but she managed her way to its side and closed the eyes roughly. The body was already growing warmer.

What had his story been?

The larger monster's body was ash.

She was covered in its ash.

She wasn't sure what she was about to do when she heard footsteps. She heard Thor's yell and her instinct was to run to him crying like she had when they were little and Loki had been a little too mean. Instead, she fought her way to her feet and stood as straight as she could, eyes sharp as they met her brother's when he appeared in the doorway.

"One escaped." She saw Loki's eyes stop scanning the room and narrow on her as she spoke. "It thought I was a trap." She waved a hand helplessly.

"Fine work, little sister." Thor boomed, as Odin appeared at his side. She wanted to punch him but despite his words he moved in and he wrapped a giant arm around her shoulders. He felt his little sister shaking beside him and he looked confused for a moment before noting how cold she was and stepping aside to wrap his cloak around her shoulders.

Loki's eyes never left her face. He stood at the spot where she'd first caught sight of him, just inside the entrance, appearing to take in every detail of the scene. Aldrif knew him well enough to know he was thinking quickly.

Aldrif opened her mouth to ask Loki for his theories, wanting answers herself but Thor was already moving toward father again, angrier by the second.

"The Jotun must pay for what they've done."

Frost Giants.

Somehow, she preferred to think of them as monsters.

Her father wandered over the relic, studying it. She couldn't see his face.

"They have paid with their lives. The Destroyer did its job, and the Casket is safe. Aldrif is safe. All is well."

"All is well?" Thor forgot about Aldrif, storming toward Odin. Aldrif looked down again at the body at her feet, at the ash marking her white dress. "They broke into the weapons vault! They attacked a princess of Asgard! If the Frost Giants had stolen-"

"But they didn't."

"I want to know why they-"

Aldrif almost spoke up then, to tell Thor it was useless.

Thor roared over anything she could have said. "The Casket of Ancient Winters belonged to the Jotuns. They believe it's their birthright."

Aldrif walked away from them, finding the body of the first guard, the dead guard. His eyes were closed by his mouth was hanging open and he was twisted uncomfortably where he'd fallen. Aldrif quietly reached out a shadow and it moved the man to a position more like sleep. Thor called for war and she couldn't quite say that her anger didn't call for the same.

"March into Jotunheim as you once did, teach them a lesson, break their spirits so they'll never dare try to cross our borders again!"

"The one who fled would be able to give us some answers." Aldrif put in. "Some justice."

"You are thinking as a warrior," Odin said. "Revenge is not justice."

Thor had been turned toward her in approval but now he turned back to roar at their father. "As king of Asgard…."

Aldrif looked to Loki for his opinion only to find him considering her with a raised eyebrow. Before she could speak and ask why he was suddenly so quiet, Odin's voice thundered through and broke all three of them from their planning.

"But you're not king."

The room stilled. Thor stared at Odin for a long, long moment. Then he swung around and stormed out of the room.

"Thor isn't king?"

Odin watched the door slam behind his oldest child before turning to the princess. He simply shook his head.

"The ceremony was, ah, interrupted." Loki put in.

Aldrif's eyes flickered from Odin's anger to Thor's. Odin didn't seem about to fix the situation.

"I'm sorry." It didn't seem like enough. "I should have handled it."

And she strode off, trailing ashes of a dead monster in her wake.

Her first fight. She should have been happy.

Instead, she didn't feel like she'd ever be anything but cold.