Loki was swaggering around the place, all teeth on display as he grinned his pride at all the decorations adorning the palace. It was the festival of Ostara or Easter as Kari knew it and everyone was acting like it was a massive deal in asgard. The fact Loki was so chipper actually worried her though; what did the god of mischief have to do with a holiday about fertility and renewal? He didn't seem the type into bunnies and painting eggs to give to love ones. At least with all that posturing he made a highly visible target for her to hide from whenever he approached.

It almost seemed as if, the happier Loki was the more miserable she was as if they were a set of weighing scales. Kari had spent most of the day with the other servers balancing precariously on ladders to get all the gaudy decorations up and having a really good whine with Prue about wanting a real chocolate egg for easter – or just anything chocolate. The whining had been pretty one sided however, Kari wasn't even sure the other woman was listening but the venting was helpful at least.

When evening finally approached, the dining hall was the loudest and brightest she'd ever seen it. The singing and ballads didn't quit for a moment; even everyone's laughter was several decibels above the norm. Her ears were ringing every time she exited the room to fetch something else from the kitchens and at one point she even believed she had succumbed to deafness. That's why it was a huge surprise when everyone in the dining hall somehow heard the screaming from the corridor.

The whole room had gone dead silent when the first voice, a woman by the pitch, shrieked. Gazes turned sharply to follow the sound until a man's voice yelled out in pain and all present began to mutter and head towards the sound in unison. Thor had taken lead of the charge, followed by Odin and Loki hanging back just enough to be out of the way but still get a good look of what they'd find.

"What is this?" Thor growled out as he came upon a set of bodies, two guards crippled on the floor as they shook from a burning pain.

"Be watchful, my son." Odin pulled him back from touching the men. "This is a potent poison."

There was a set of screams now, several women's voices calling out as one giving the group another direction to follow. Thor was at the front again, his strides taking him several paces in front of the others as he readied his hammer for battle. A serving girl almost collided with him as she stumbled round the corner at a run, breathless and panic stricken but still able to tell him to hurry.

At the far end of the corridor was a spider, a huge fifteen foot spider in all its hissing furious glory and its current mission involved chasing down a couple of maidens running for their lives. One of the women, a redhead, slipped on her skirt as she tried to get away. He would have thrown his hammer at that point but instead the second woman had gotten in his way before he could get a good aim without hitting the civilians.

Kari hadn't thought about it, just reacted; Prue was down and caught up in her flowing skirts. All that hide and seek training with Egill had come in handy as she rolled to the side, effectively shielding Prue with her body as the spider began spitting its poison again. There was a tray still in her hand, one she had been taking back to the kitchens when the spider had set upon them and boy did it come useful as a shield.

"Fandralkin!"

She could hear Thor's voice but he was too far away, he wouldn't make it in time to stop the looming, pincer mouth filled monster about to stomp and crunch out their too short lives – well at least her too short life, Prue was probably a million years old. The stupid tray wasn't going to hold that goliath back now was it? Or could it? There was no harm in trying; she was going to die anyway.

Kari stood to her full height, lifting the tray over her head as the spider lunged into to take a bite out of her. She smacked it in the side of its face with a loud 'clang'; the spider tittered a step across with the blows force and seemed confused for a fraction of a second before trying again. 'Clang', she struck it again, this time over the top of its ugly head causing the creature to hiss in annoyance before receiving its third smack.

"Bad spider!" She was shouting at it now, the monster taking a step back every time she hit it. "That's it, you get back there!" Oh was she annoyed with this thing and boy did it know. "Go on!" She backed it up against the wall until it had nowhere else to move and simply started cowering every time she raised the tray. "Sit!" 'Clang' "Sit!" 'Clang' "I said, sit!" It finally sat, or at least did the spider equivalent of sitting. "Good spider." She grinned; that had been a lot easier than training Griffin when she first got him.

"Er, Fandralkin?"

She turned, hearing her sort of name for the second time, to see Thor with a look of intimidated amusement staring at her as he helped Prue to her feet. She soon flushed a crimson colour when she realized what appeared to be most of asgard right behind him shoving for room to see in the corridor. Had they really been watching the whole time and not bothered to come rescue them? And she had been under the impression they were the heroic type too.

"That was…" The god of thunder was lost for words, a hand rubbing the back of his neck as he looked to the others around him to fill in the blanks.

"Do you think you could get it to follow you outside?" Odin, having had enough of a ponder, came fearlessly toward the midgardian and her new pet spider.

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Could try. Aren't you going to kill it?"

"I am more interested in the how as to it got here." He indicated for her to try to lead the frightened goliath out of his palace. "To the yard if you would."

Kari let out a great sigh, and then turned back to the spider, lifting the tray and fanning it in the direction she wanted the creature to head in. It only coward into a tighter ball, legs curled inwards as if it were trying to will itself into death rather than get hit again.

"Shhh, it's ok." She tried the soft approach, her free hand stroking a hairy leg to soothe it until it responded. "That's it, come on."

It wasn't such a hard thing to coax it along, once she finally got it out of the ball and started down the adjoining corridor. The moment he was sure she, apparently, had everything under control Odin had started bellowing loudly for Heimdall and ordering people around to clean up the mess.

The celebration had been ruined and something - a sensation of being watched - kept poking its accusing fingers in the direction of mister mischief himself. Could this have been what he was planning? Somehow coax a giant poisonous spider into the palace to cause havoc and disrupt the festival? No wonder he had been in such a good mood.