Peeking around the door way, Kagome was shocked to see that the source of the shimmering green sparks was Loki.
With each puff of green smoke, a dagger appeared in each of his hands. He threw them with undeniable skill and grace, and they each sank into the center of his target with a solid thunk. Then they'd vanish from the target, reappearing in his hands with a puff of that green, sparkling smoke.
Kagome watched mesmerized for several minutes, ignoring the whoops and shouts from the crowd gathered to watch Thor wipe the floor with whatever new opponent had stepped up to replace the last.
It was obvious that Loki hadn't noticed her presence. He appeared lost in his movements. He'd spin, throw them with his back turned, flip them high in the air and catch them before sending them on their way. His movements were artful but deadly and she simply couldn't look away.
A nudge and a soft 'ahem' at her elbow finally drew her attention away and to the servant who held out her bow for her.
"Here you are My Lady. My Lord and Prince Thor sent me to retrieve it for you."
"Thank you so much. Uh... that will be all."
She was still very uncomfortable with this whole servant thing, but she brushed it aside and stepped awkwardly out the door and placed herself in line with a target.
The 'thunks' of the knife blades stopped and she turned to meet Loki's blandly curious gaze.
She held up her bow and quiver with an uncomfortable chuckle.
"Heh... sorry. Hope I'm not intruding. I just haven't practiced since I got here and I can't let myself get rusty."
She blushed at her own rambling. He simply lifted a brow and then gave her the subtlest of nods, turning back to his target and manifesting his knives again.
She exhaled, shouldered her quiver, drew an arrow, and set her stance.
Midoriko had made her practice every day of their travels, and she'd progressed in her skill so far that she really would rival Kikyo now. She wondered if it would finally impress Inuyasha, but then she shook that thought away and let her arrow fly. It's own resounding 'thunk' as it hit the target dead center was deeply satisfying and she couldn't fight the proud grin that spread across her face. She grabbed another arrow and lined up shot after shot, creating a neat circle of evenly spaced arrows around her first bullseye. When she reached back and found no more arrows she sighed. Now she had to go get them, and the target she was using was far.
"Man, I wish I could could do that cool poofing thing with my arrows like you're doing with your daggers. That would sure come in handy right now."
She looked over at Loki, who'd glanced at her after she'd spoken. He looked down the practice yard at her arrows firmly embedded in the center of her target, met her eyes again, gave one of his fingers a brief twirl in the air, and turned back to his own target.
A puff of that green smoke blew a few strands of her hair forward and she shivered as she could suddenly feel thin tendrils of Loki's aura curl around her as the smoke and sparkles dispersed.
She looked back, noticed all of her arrows back home in there quiver, and felt impressed all over again.
"Wow! That's amazing!"
"Kid tricks," he replied, not so much as glancing back in her direction.
"Still, thanks so much!"
She took her shots again, this time taking aim at a few farther targets off to the sides.
When her quiver was once again empty, she turned to Loki and found him polishing the blade of one of his daggers, a tiny smirk on his face.
"I am not doing that again."
She slumped and her face fell.
"Aw! Why not?"
"If I do it for you all have to do it for every imbecilic archer and spear thrower who crowds this lawn."
"Well lucky you, I'm not an imbecile."
She ignored his cocked brow and plunged on, determined to convince him to help her.
"There's also no one else in here, they're all busy trying to fight Thor. One more time? I won't tell anyone."
He sighed and rolled his eyes, another puff of smoke sending sparks and the feeling of him to slide over her shoulders.
She shook it off and smiled brightly.
"Thanks! Your secret is safe with me, and that's the last time I'll be lazy, promise!"
"We'll see."
She turned to line up another shot when Thor jogged outside.
"Kagome! What are you doing out here? You're missing my moments of glory!"
She giggled and waved him off.
"Something tells me there will be plenty of those 'moments of glory' for me to see over the years. I uh..." she glanced back over at Loki who ignored them completely and made his way off of the practice lawn and back inside. She didn't want to tell Thor she hadn't watched him because she'd been watching his brother. She didn't want to seem like a creep. She held up her bow and quiver instead.
"I was practicing! I haven't even touched my bow since I arrived. I needed to get some practice shots in."
"Ah, these mysterious archery skills. Show me!"
They toiled away the rest of the morning, Kagome shooting at targets and Thor retrieving her arrows. Not as efficient as Loki's magic, but better than having to run after them herself.
"You are quite skilled with this thing." Thor eyed her bow and them smirked. "Would you like to see something really impressive?"
"Sure!"
He held his hand out to the side, palm open, and stood stock still. He continued to smirk down at her and Kagome eyeballed him speculatively, wondering if he hadn't been bashed in the head one too many times today.
A large hammer flew through the air and landed firmly in his grasp. He lifted it, allowing storm clouds to gather over him and calling a lighting bolt down. It struck the hammer and traveled partway up his arm. He turned and thrust the hammer out in front of him, sending the lighting out to blow up a distant target.
He relaxed his posture and turned back to her with a smug grin.
"Wow! That was cool!"
He crossed his arms and let the hammer dangle from his wrist by its strap.
"I know, I know. My mjolnir and I are most impressive."
Kagome stared down at the smoking target and had a wicked idea.
"I can do that."
Thor faltered, his preening at her praise stopping cold.
"You can... what?"
She pointed down at the charred target.
"That. I can do that. Watch."
She drew an arrow and picked another far away target. She lined up her shot, drew back her string, and for the first time since she'd arrived, she reached in and allowed the wellspring of her power to tip over and flow through her veins. It reached her fingertips and flared brightly around the arrow.
She released, her pink comet streaking through the air and landing on the target with a stunning explosion of pink light and glitter. Just like she'd said, the target was left smoking, bits of it littering the lawn several yards away.
With the jewel's fusing to her soul, the strength of her power had multiplied greatly, but with Midoriko's help she'd been able to hone it and control it. She'd never have been able to do that with the regular reiki she'd been born with. She should probably feel a little silly for showing off, but the jewel had taken everything from her for this, the least she could do was have fun with it.
And the gobsmacked look on Thor's face was certainly fun.
"Wha... you... Wow."
"Yeah, I'm pretty impressive." It was her turn to smirk and feel smug, but her pride dissolved into giggles when she noticed he was still staring slack jawed at the target she'd destroyed. She wondered how often he was that thrown off by a display of someone else's power.
"Wanna see me do it again?"
"No! No uh... we should report this to father. He will absolutely want to know about this. This is... you told me you were a priestess, but.."
"I'm a warrior priestess, Thor. Not just the blessing kind."
He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time, a new light of respect flickering in his eyes. She shifted, feeling a bit self conscious.
"You are surprising indeed, Priestess Kagome. I find myself glad to call you family and not enemy."
Happiness and affection bubbled up in her soul and chased away some of the darkness she still harbored. She was a long way from healed, but she felt like this was a place where that healing could really happen. Looking at the kind, handsome god determined to be her family, to be her brother, she wondered if fate hadn't left her quite so abandoned after all.
"Thank you." She meant it with every fiber of her being. "I'm glad we're family too."
Thor, looking immensely pleased that she'd accepted the place he'd decided she would occupy, took her arm and escorted her to lunch.
A.N.: I don't know where in the world each of my readers live, but I hope you're all staying as safe and healthy as you are able in these crazy, unpredictable times.
