It was not a good morning, her head buzzed angrily still fogged with honey mead and upon exiting her room, Kari was forced to tiptoe over several naked bodies snoring painfully loud. She paused half way towards the door in order to toss a pillow at her grandfather, effectively covering his nudity and tried her best to blot out the rest; that she could only assume was an orgy from the night before and most likely the reason she had been drinking. Why oh why was she not blessed to be as much a man's lady as her grandfather was a ladies man? The genetics must be stored in her DNA somewhere.

By the time she had reached the kitchens, stocked up on a large hangover cure breakfast and began setting up the dining hall with the other asgardian waitresses, life had not decided enough startling shocks for the day had already occurred. Serana was still around, Balder looking pensive along the table but not seated besides her. Instead, the harlot was sitting in what had been Kari's usual place besides Thor.

She almost dropped a platter of pork chops at the scene, bimbo and bimboob being lovey dovey with one another was enough to make her unhappy post-drinking stomach lose its iron lining. Making a quick pit stop at a bathroom, Kari purged her system and took the chance to splash cold water on her face to bring some sort of reddish life back to her pale complexion. She really was looking like shit; no wonder nobody looked at her twice and how the heck was that tart getting with so many men at once? Serana was just with Thor's brother and he had no scruples about stealing her from not only Loki but Balder too? Then again, it is not hard to steal what throws itself willingly at anything that breathes. Maybe she should try throwing herself at someone; lord knows she needed a good hard seeing too by anyone with a pulse. All right, maybe not anyone, she could never live down sleeping with some… one.

Still, Kari Motter needed to get her diva back and fast. What was the point in all this feeling sorry for herself, ignoring the fun of a bit of dress up and not using the seventeen year old body she just got back? Later though, she had work to do and then Fandral wanted to have a spar after lunch. No point in getting all nice looking when she was about to get sweaty.

Loki was still missing in action, which was a good thing really as she had no intention of going anywhere near the library for the next few days. All the studying was making her brain hurt and the disappointment of not getting anywhere since the trickster had stopped actually showing her how to do anything was making her feel rather horrid. Maybe now his lady friend was with someone else they could get back to productive classes but no doubt he would be in a nasty mood when he got back and discovered the betrayal. Better to keep out of his way for as long as possible.

Passing Prue in the corridor on her way towards the training yard had been very uncomfortable and awkward. The redhead was as big as a house, grumpy and tired to boot. Kari had never been at ease around heavily pregnant women, not since an incident had occurred back when she first started working as a waitress – an occurrence that prompted all the first aid training in the restaurant. A loud-mouthed sixteen-year-old going into labor late on a Monday night was like a nightmare come true. Sure an ambulance had arrived on the scene within the hour but it was a long enough wait to scar an impressionable young woman for life. At least she never missed taking the contraceptive pill afterwards ever again; it had been an informative incentive.

As soon as Prue was done having a good long complaining session about Egill, Egill's mother and Egill's pending offspring, she thankfully had somewhere else to get to and allowed Kari to finally leave. Fandral was already in full swing when she arrived in the training yard; both he and Balder going at it like two old pro's venting out some manly angst or something. It gave her a chance to watch a pretty good live-action demonstration whilst tightening on her sword belt and pulling her hair back into something less in the way and messy.

Starting off, she began stretching her body out before leading into a now memorized practice routine with sword drawn. Balder was not doing well, his stance showing signs of weakness, flaws in his defense as Fandral scored yet another point against him. Not wishing to relent the two began again, Fandral's agile thrusts knocked back several time but ultimately a new fault opening up in Balder's counters until this time he lost his main weapon becoming disarmed in a swirling sweep. Fandral sighed as the other warrior went to retrieve his blade, hoping to continue but the moustache-preening blonde had other ideas.

"Kari, my dear."

"Yup?" She answered; not taking her eyes off her sword as she maintained her concentration.

"Come into the sparring square, you shall spar with Balder the brave this day." Her grandfather indicated for her to take his place as Balder looked somewhat hurt.

"Eh?" Well this was new. "He'll just thrash me like he normally does."

"It will raise his spirits to win a bout." Fandral whispered in her ear as he pushed her to stand in front of the less than pleased warrior. "Keep that elbow up."

"I am, I am! Ugh…" She groaned, getting into a ready stance as Balder mimicked the same fixing her with an intimidating stare. "I don't know why you're so mad." She glared back at him, Balder answering her words with a quick succession of attacks forcing her to take a step back and then several more to the side to dodge. "Really, was that i-" She gasped as he arced his blade around very nearly cutting off her head if it had not been for her ducking skills. "Balder, the hell?"

"Elbow Kari!" Fandral called just in time to distract her away from the flutter of curly hair that was floating downwards from being cut and reminded her to strengthen her elbow in time to block Balder's next swing.

Grunting with the effort of pushing back against his might, she found herself being forced downwards onto her knees against his superior strength. The only way out was to drop her guard and roll between his legs using the only advantage she had - speed and smallness. He faltered, losing his balance from the sudden lack of counter force just long enough for her to regain her footing and prepare to defend his next turn and combo of attacks. Balder was vicious today but clumsy and several times she thought he might actually kill her. Why Fandral was not stopping the obviously dangerous spar was beyond her but perhaps he thought her capable enough to handle it or still believed his friend incapable of causing harm.

Parrying another swing, she spotted an opening and kicked the warrior as hard as she could behind his left knee. He dropped into a kneeling position giving her a chance to jump back and catch her breath, which was now ragged and burning her lungs.

"What's got into you?" She raised her elbow with the roll of her eyes as Fandral shouted about it again but kept her focus on glaring at Balder. "I'm a beginner remember, you're being really kind of fucking mean here and-"

What had just happened? Her elbow had been up had it not? Why was her head ringing? There was a really weird metallic taste in her mouth as she blinked at something shiny in front of her eyes with clouds above it. Oh, she was on the floor, it definitely felt like stones pressing into her back. She blinked again as Balder's form loomed over her eclipsing the sunshine and wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You're a complete bastard, you know that right?" She flicked a splatter of blood at his clothing as he took a steadying breath. "But I suppose it's alright to knock around beginners as long as they're lying common wenches lacking in character or whatever."

"I yield!" Balder announced, sheathing his sword as he walked away rather than argue and fight.

Kari sat up, feeling a slight bruise appearing on her cheek from where she had no doubt been pimp slapped by her sparring partner. Thankfully most of the damage had occurred on the inside where her teeth had torn the flesh though the blood was rather gruesome. Fandral appeared, offering her his arm to hoist her back onto her feet, which she accepted gladly and tried to straighten her clothing.

"Why did you throw me in with him?" She asked, shaking her head to clear some of the continued ringing. "He was trying to kill me."

"I have my doubts as to that, my dear." He sighed handing back her sword that had been knocked out of her grip during the final blows. "It was a good match, you are not so much the beginner you claim."

"I lost."

"If you had not been verbally provocative the entire bout you would have won."

"Oh really now?"

"Yes." He cut her short from working her mouth up into being verbally provocative with him as well. "You did very well to exploit his weaknesses and hold your own when your mouth was closed. Why you wished to lose for the sake of petty arguing I know not."

"He was rude to me yesterday."

"And has he not been suffering for that and more since then?"

"Well…" She looked off to the side, recalling how broody Balder had been over breakfast with Serana and Thor canoodling mere feet away. "He hasn't apologized to me for what he said."

"Do you deserve it when you act so cruel?"

"I am not…" She was shocked, outraged and unsure how to back chat a certain degree of truth. "Granddad!"

"I am tired for today." Fandral smiled at his victory feigning a little fatigue. "I will see you tonight, perhaps."

Frowning, she watched her grandfather disappear from sight leaving her alone in the training yard with a sword and her thoughts for company. Folding her arms, she tutted loudly kicking a stone into several bounces across the ground and paced in an aggravated circle. Everybody else being at fault made her feel better, because at least then she was not the one that was wrong. Balder had called her names, questioned her character and refused to believe her for a stupid woman. Then he got dumped before anything got started for his friend, Thor, and had to sit through the woman he wanted laughing and cuddling with another man. Well she knew that pain, she had wanted him and he dissed her for a harlot.

All right fine, maybe they were both upset about the same thing with different people. He called her names in a moment of lunacy and she called him names a lot more when she knew he was feeling pretty low already. Maybe she was the bigger bitch.

"Aw, fuck." Kari growled as she kicked another stone sending it hurtling across the yard towards the stables.