Disclaimer: I don't own Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, or any of the characters involved. All rights go to Rick Riordan.
Once again, I woke up just before dinner. I walked with T.J. again. Valhalla was definitely the hardest place in the nine worlds to find your way around.
When we got there, I sat with Sam and floor nineteen like usual.
"Hey guys," I said, while sitting down. The guys just nodded back.
"Don't you mean guys and ladies?" Mallory asked. I just rolled my eyes. Quicker than I could process it, Mallory had her knife under my chin.
"I think that's for the food," T.J. said.
"Yeah but my favorite food is chicken," she replied.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked.
"What I'm trying to say is that for single combat tomorrow, I will be your opponent."
"Oh," I said, still not exactly sure what just happened. I wondered why she took so much offense to an eye roll.
After dinner, I walked back to floor nineteen with T.J., still trying to figure that whole situation out.
"So why exactly, did I get challenged by Mallory?" I asked. He looked at me funny, as if trying to figure out if I was serious or not.
"You can't be serious. Wait. Can you? My gods, you are serious!" He started laughing. I didn't get it, so I looked around as if something funny that I missed would pop up out of nowhere. He stopped laughing, and said, "Magnus, you hurt her pride."
"What! How!"
"You don't get it, do you?" he asked.
"No, obviously not." I replied.
"When Mallory was still alive, it was somewhere about the time of women's suffrage." I looked away trying not to show that I didn't know what that was.
Now I know what you're thinking. Magnus, didn't you even know what women's suffrage is?
Well, to answer your question, I missed out on a lot of school, being homeless and all. So no, I didn't know what it was.
[A/N: I have found that, sadly, a lot of people don't know what it is, so this might also be a history lesson.]
"Magnus, you do know what that is, don't you?" he asked. Well, he caught me.
"No, not a clue," I replied.
"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, women didn't have the right to vote. Women's suffrage, sometimes called woman suffrage, is women's right to vote," he said.
That didn't sound right to me. As if reading my mind, he said, "By 'suffrage,' it means that women suffered before they had their rights."
Ok, now it made sense why she was so mad at me. She was from a time when women had no rights, and were oppressed. When I just rolled my eyes at her, she took it as a sign of disrespect to women. I understand now, but the challenged had been made, so I couldn't back out. If I did that, I would be seen as a coward, forever stuck washing dishes as punishment.
I felt really bad now, and thought about letting her win, but then I realized that if she even thought that I didn't try, she would challenge me again. And again. And again. Over and over until she felt like it was a fair fight.
Well, looks like I will have to kill her this time. Unless she actually beats me, which wouldn't surprise me at all, seeing as how she has been here training for like, 100 years or something. It still didn't make sense to me, though. Why would she care if she was born in Ireland?
Maybe she moved to America later on before she died. I don't guess it matters very much now, anyways.
That night, as I was going to bed, thoughts of the upcoming fight kept me awake. I just didn't think I would be able to kill her. We weren't that close, but we were still kind of friends. I couldn't think about that right now, though. I needed sleep if I was going to be able to fight at all the next day.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes, I drifted off into the dark, but warm embrace of sleep.
I started the slow and painful process sometimes known as waking up.
I know, dramatic right? It reminds me of how Annabeth described Zeus. Speaking of that, I really should look into the existence of the other pantheons, but not now. I'm too busy telling this story for that. Maybe I will get to it later. If I remember, that is.
As I slowly gained consciousness, I started to remember the events of the day before. Then it hit me. I had to fight Mallory today.
She was a vicious fighter. And even worse, today was Thorsday. Don't you mean Thursday, Magnus? Yeah, yeah, I know. But after a while you kind of get used to the Norse stuff. Back to the "even worse" part. Thursdays were dragon days. That means that if I am lucky enough to win against Mallory, I will still have to fight a bunch of crazy, fire-breathing dragons.
Looks like I'm schist-out-of-luck.
At breakfast, I talked to Sam and my hall mates like normal. Well, not exactly. It was kind of awkward sitting near Mallory, but she acted like it was just another normal day.
To her, it probably was. I was probably at least the fiftieth person she's challenged. Nothing would surprise me at this point. Of course, I spoke too soon.
Right after that thought went through my head, I took a bite of the tofu. I almost puked.
[A/N: It's nothing against tofu, but as Magnus becomes more wolfish he will start to dislike non-meat foods.]
After breakfast everybody left to go wherever they wanted. But of course, if you were doing any combat, the hour following breakfast is for single combat. It looked like about time to get killed again. Oh well. By now I am definitely used to it.
Alright guys (and girls), got the second chapter out. On what day? That's right, MY BIRTHDAY.