Fairies flitted about a tiny girl making a crown of flowers. It wouldn't be too long before she knew they weren't real. FORWARD. A man got down on one knee and asked her to marry him; so nervous for the next day he was practicing in his dreams. FORWARD. A girl screamed and ran into an alleyway, straight into a dead end. "Ah come on, don't be difficult," a man said a few feet away from her. He began to unbuckle his pants. I knew what was coming and screamed, "No!" Everything stopped. I didn't rush forward to the next dream. The girl still looked on terrified, not hearing me. "Kick him where it hurts!" I yelled at her, "Come on, get away!" Something changed on her face and suddenly she looked determined. She kicked him and ran. I breathed a sigh of relief as the mood of the dream changed from fear to confidence.

I jerked awake. Running to the window, I looked out and saw that the first sun was just beginning to peak out from behind the horizon. I couldn't have been asleep for that long; the river of images did not last nearly as long. Was it because of the last dream? It certainly seemed different, like I had actually changed the ending of the dream. Made it better. It was a bit optimistic, but it made me feel better about the whole "Goddess of Dreams" thing.

I pulled out my IPod and blasted some music as I got ready for the day. I opened the wardrobe and found about 30 different dresses, but nothing that even resembled my resting clothes. So apparently I was wearing the same clothes every single day. I had no idea how Astrid had them rapidly cleaned, so I just stripped down and threw them in the wardrobe so they were out of the way and hopped in the shower.

I got out and remembered that there was no such thing as towels in Asgard. Swearing under my breath, I opened the bathroom door and looked around, making sure there was no one there. I sprinted to the wardrobe and opened it. My clothes that I had thrown in there were perfectly clean and hanging up neatly. I silently thanked whoever came up with this and got dressed quickly. As I pulled my shirt on I heard someone say, "What is this awful noise coming from this tiny device?"

I jumped around and glared at Loki. "What the hell is with everyone appearing out of nowhere and trying to scare the shit out of me?" I stomped over to him and picked the IPod out of his hands, which was playing This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars. "And this is a good song. You just have no taste in music."

"I know what music is, this is simply Earthlings screaming."

I rolled my eyes. "Well you don't have to listen to it." I hit the pause button. "So what are you doing here anyway? It's too freaking early for any normal human being to function."

"Luckily, I'm not human, much less normal, so I am perfectly capable of functioning this early," he said with a smirk.

"You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?" I asked, mildly annoyed with him now.

"I simply wanted to make sure you were well, as you did not return to your room for our lesson last night," he said with an obvious sting to his words.

"Don't get your panties up in a bunch, I lost track of time training with Ollerus and by the time I got back you were gone. I promise to be on time from now on. Feel better?" I said condescendingly.

"Many do not believe training was the only thing you were doing," he said suggestively. The barrier I had built yesterday almost instantly disintegrated, putting my power at the edge of my fingertips.

"How dare you imply that I slept with him?" I screeched. "Only a few days ago I beat Thor for calling me a whore and then you go and say this kind of crap? If you really think that I would do that, I'll have to beat you too!" He immediately threw his hands up in surrender.

"I did not say that I believed it. Now I can tell the court that their rumors are unfounded."

"Rumors that you started?"

He grinned mischievously. "Perhaps, perhaps not."

"I knew it was a terrible idea to trust you," I snapped. He walked over and threw an arm around my shoulders. It took all my willpower not to run from it.

"Come sister, can you not take a joke? I would never do that, as I know what would happen if I did. I only wanted some revenge for you abandoning your lesson. Relax," he said calmly. I glared at him.

"That wasn't a very kind joke," I muttered.

"It wasn't kind to abandon me." I couldn't be sure if I heard a tiny bit of hurt in his voice or not.

"I won't do it again. So don't do that to me again, okay?" I said resignedly. I was a bit in the wrong, and he only amplified that, making me feel bad.

He patted my shoulder and released me. "Agreed. I will see you tonight then?"

"Yep. Bye!" He walked out the door just as Astrid walked in.

"Good morning Master Loki," she said quickly. He ignored her and walked off. She looked at me questioningly.

"I'll explain later. Time to get to class."

xx

The rest of the day was brutal. There was no more talking with Sif; it was complete and total technique. I hit the floor so many times I was pretty sure that my face was slightly flattened by it. It was made blatantly obvious that the only reason I had beat Thor was because I had majorly amplified my skills. She attempted to show me how to throw my knives, but even with the targets moved so they were only 15 feet in front of me, I miserably missed every single time until the final ten minutes when I managed to hit the very edges of the target.

Ollerus was all business. I was a little put out by how far he was from the puppy of yesterday, instead droning on and on about how to properly carve the wood, which end to bend, blah blah blah. He barely even looked at me. My thought the entire time was I'm going to kill Loki, I'm going to kill him. I knew that if those rumors hadn't flown around he wouldn't have been acting like my 11th grade math teacher Mr. Haight. And he was horrid.

We ended precisely on time and he stayed behind, letting me walk to dinner on my own. Astrid didn't even bother trying to talk to me, seeing the grumpy look on my face and knowing I'd only snap at her. I picked at my food the entire time at dinner, sitting at the very end with Thor across from me, refusing to look me in the eye, and some random person named Fandral sitting next to me, who kept making lame puns the entire time that I didn't understand.

Eventually I could put it off no longer and headed to my room to meet Loki. I made sure the barrier I had resurrected before heading to my training with Sif was up. Hopefully if I showed ineptitude in magic I could cancel the classes with Loki and spend my nights talking with Astrid or listening to music.

I walked in and saw him lying on my bed, my earbuds draped over his ears like an earpiece that agents wear in movies. His eyes were closed and he was tapping his fingers to a beat I couldn't hear. He looked over and jumped up rapidly, my headphones dragging my IPod across the bed. He ripped them off his ears and threw them back on the bed. "I was..um..well…" he stuttered out.

"What's wrong, I thought you were Silvertongue?" I grinned like a mad man. This was rich.

"I was merely exploring your musical tastes to better understand what it is that motivates or excites you. That can be useful when learning sorcery," he said smoothly this time.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. You were totally listening to my music, and enjoying it too, ya little hypocrite!" I teased. My anger at him was still there, but now it seemed minor so I put it on the backburner.

"Believe what you want," he said flippantly, but I could tell he was embarrassed I had caught him. "I brought this as a source for you to begin your training," he said, dropping a gigantic leather book onto the book.

"How did you carry that? Hell, where did you put it!" I asked. It had literally appeared out of nowhere.

"If you read it, you'll discover how," he said with annoyance in his tone.

"So are you actually going to teach me anything or are you just going to make me read this book?" There was no way in all of humanity that I was ever going to finish that book. I didn't hate books, but the thing was the size of my torso and twice as thick.

"I will teach you. There is bookwork. Though I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that there will also be hands-on experience." He finished speaking and I was being thrown across the room, straight into the wall. Although I was already turning so I didn't hit the wall head-on, there was no way my reaction time was fast enough. I could feel the barrier shatter and then suddenly I was pushing off the wall with my feet, landing on the balls of my feet.

I stood there for a moment to let the fog fade away before yelling, "I told you not to do that again!"

"My last bit of revenge. And it broke that little wall you had set up so we can begin with little error," he said, smiling. I gave him a dirty look. "Please, that was easy to detect. You don't enjoy having to put it up anyway; I don't see why you are angered by me." Was I really that obvious?

"No, though you don't particularly hide your emotions well. I am good at reading people. Example, I can tell you love the rush that using your power brings, giving you strength you didn't know you had," he said as if making a speech meant to terrify. I stared at him. Was he right? I did enjoy actually being able to win a fight. But I wanted to do it fair and square!

"I'll teach you other ways to use it, not just to simply enhance your combat skills. We'll start with something simply: a ball of energy." And just like that he had flipped back to the man who simply wanted to help his sister adjust to the world. Of all the rapid personality switches I'd seen his by far was the most dramatic. He conjured two chairs and had us sit across from each other.

"Jodi, close your eyes." I gave him a suspicious look. "I will not do any bodily harm to you. Just close your eyes," he said exasperated. I did as I was told, muscles tensed in case he was lying. I felt him grab my hands and turn them palm up, forming a cup. "Imagine a hollow ball made of glass, just above your hands."

I did so, picturing a perfectly smooth ball that was completely see-through floating a few inches above my hands.

"Now, I want you to think of one of your Earthling songs, one that has some sort of emotional attachment to it." I silently went through my songs, trying to figure out what the best one. One song popped into my head, and I realized it was perfect.

"Got it," I said.

"Good. Play that song in your mind, and think of all the memories associated with." I could nearly hear the song, Grim Goodbye, by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. It was my ultimate stress song, the one that was always on replay when things got tougher than ever. I had played it many times since getting my IPod back from Earth. I thought of all the fights I'd had with my family right before putting it on, the friendships that had dissolved, my anger at being stuck in Asgard with no one knowing I was even gone.

My face contorted into a mask of pain. "Take all those emotions you are feeling and imagine them as fire being transferred into the glass ball." I barely even registered his voice. I imagined wrapping everything up in a net of fire and shoving it into the ball, happy to be rid of them. I could hear Loki smiling when he said, "Open your eyes."

I opened them and saw exactly what I had pictured. A glass ball with a massive fire raging inside of it. It vaguely reminded me of a Rememberall from Harry Potter.

"And I did that?" I asked, not quite believing it.

"All you," Loki said, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it either. "It takes most several tries to even get a flicker of color in there. I am impressed."

I grinned, glancing up at him. "I'd suggest dismembering it before you waste all of your energy. You're still too new to sorcery to maintain even this for long." I imagined it dissipating. "Please be careful though, I don't want an acc-" He didn't get to finish his sentence. Instead of the ball fading away, it exploded in front of us. Loki and I were thrown from our chairs, landing on the floor with a huge thud.

A minute later the door opened. "Milady! Master Loki! Are you okay?" I barely even heard Astrid as Loki and me were on the ground laughing like maniacs. "Milady?"

"I'm fine! I'm fine, just a little accident," I said between gasps. Finally after several minutes we were able to recover enough to stand up.

"I think that's enough for today," Loki said, still laughing at random times and a grin from ear to ear plastering his face. "Lady Jodi, I must say that that was the most I have laughed in a very long time. Thank you. Good night." He bowed before leaving the room. I could hear him chuckling as he walked down the hall.

"Are you sure you are fine Jodi?" Astrid asked one more time.

"Yeah I'm fine. And thank you for calling me Jodi," I said, glad to hear my Midgardian name once again.

xx

Trillions of miles away, on a little planet called Earth, a girl woke up from a nightmare. One that she had had ever since what she could only refer to as the Incident. The nightmare returned every night, always leaving her sobbing when she awoke, but not tonight. Something had told her how to stop it, how to run from it. She silently thanked whatever being out there had given her the strength to do so, and slept peacefully for the first time in ages.

I just have to say thanks to WulfLuvr22 and Demonic Kitten for reminding me that people actually read and enjoy what I post by posting their reviews. So thank you guys, you keep me motivated to write!