Chapter Thirty Five

"Are you ready?" the Doctor asked.

"Are you?" I countered.

"No," he said quietly.

"Don't worry," I said, rubbing his shoulders. "You have a time machine. Barely any time will pass."

He sighed and nodded. "Alright. You sure you need some time off?"

I nodded. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. Harry put some sort of anti-aging spell on the bracelet and you tinkered with your screwdriver. So it should help slow down my aging, in addition to the astral projection and the other stuff it lets me do."

"So what are you going to do again?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm going to use the bracelet to go as far as ten years between my age - since I'm fifteen, that's five to twenty five. So I'm gonna be six. And since you tinkered with it, I can also choose who sees me in person, not just in astral projection form. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

He nodded. "Well then. To Asgard?"

"To Asgard."

...

Truthfully, I had no idea how old they were, but when I first met Thor and Loki, Thor looked about nine and Loki, about eight. I looked about six or seven. They were playing around in the banquet room.

It was quite sad, really.

...

"I know. Let's play Frost Giants!" Thor said, running around. "You be the Frost Giant, and I'll be the Asgardian."

"But I'm always the Frost Giant," Loki complained.

"That's because I'm older," Thor said. "But I'll let you be the Asgardian next time!"

"That's what you said last time," Loki muttered. But he agreed to be the Frost Giant anyway.

Loki ran around the big, empty banquet room, with Thor chasing after him. But when running around the room, he noticed something, out of the corner of his eye. The next time he looped around, he looked for it. And then he saw what it was.

He stopped in his tracks. Thor crashed into them, and they tumbled to the floor.

"I caught you!" Thor beamed, but Loki put his fingers to his lips.

"What is it?" Thor asked, suddenly as serious as he could be for his age.

"There's a girl hiding behind that beam," Loki whispered.

They both looked over to the beam, and Thor scooted off Loki, as he'd been pinning him down. After a few moments, a young girl peeked her head around the corner of the beam. When she saw them watching her, she gave out a little gasp and she quickly hid herself around the corner of the beam.

The brothers exchanged looks, and slowly, each of them crept up from the other side of the beam, surrounding the young girl.

She was ready for them. She brandished a thick bat, which she lobbed at Thor's head the minute he came around the corner. He easily pushed it aside, and both brothers pinned her against the wall.

"Who are you?" Loki asked.

Loki and Thor went together like Ying and Yang. Loki was the moon to Thor's sun. He was also the brain to Thor's strength.

"I'm no one," she said. "I'm not even here."

The minute she said it, a voice said, "Thor! Loki! What are you doing up! You're supposed to be in bed!" Frigga crossed her arms at her sons, but she was secretly smiling. It was amazing how much energy the two little boys had.

"We were just-" Thor looked over at the girl.

"She can't see me," she said. "Or hear me," she added.

"Well?" Frigga asked expectantly.

"Playing," Loki finished.

"Well," Frigga said. "I suppose I can give you a little bit more time. I'll come back in thirty minutes. However, if your father finds you first, you need to listen to him."

Shaking her head and slightly laughing, she turned and walked away.

As soon as their mother was out of sight, the brothers turned back to the young girl.

"What kind of a creature are you?" Thor demanded, shoving her up against the beam. He was obviously hurting her, but she didn't wince or cry out.

"You're hurting her, Thor," Loki said quietly, putting his hand on his brothers shoulder. Thor realized what he was doing and eased up a bit.

"Well, you're obviously real," Loki said. "We can feel you."

"Of course," she said. "I'm real, but I can choose who sees me and hears me. I'm actually surprised it worked here, I thought that it might be different with Asgardians.

"So you're not Asgardian?" Thor asked. He glanced down at Loki and sort of moved him out of the way. After all, he had no idea how dangerous this non-Asgardian creature was.

"No. I'm human. Or, I guess you could say, I'm Midgardian?" She wondered.

"What are you doing on Asgard?" Loki asked, somewhat pushing Thor out of the way. He moved closer to the girl. "Humans haven't been on Asgard before. Well," he looked at Thor, "I don't think they have."

Thor shrugged. "I may be older, but I am no wiser."

"I don't know what I'm doing on Asgard. I think I got lost," she said.

Thor and Loki exchanged looks. That part what obviously a lie, but they decided not to push it.

"What is your name?" Thor asked, much more gently. If this was a human, she was very, very young indeed.

"Rissa," she said quietly.

"Well, Rissa," Loki said, "I'm Loki and this is my older brother, Thor. It's nice to meet you."

She smiled. "It's nice to meet you too."