InsaneJournal

Some people found Mjolnir disturbing
Who: Thor and Link
Where: a farmer’s market and then Link’s house
What: Meetings and demonstrations of weaponry
When: Saturday 3/9
Warnings/Rating: PG for minor violence toward trees
Status Complete


It was encroaching on dusk, but Link looked as bright eyed as he had when the Farmer’s Market opened. For the first time since breaking his ankle, he’d been able to drive himself to the city and set up shop in his usual stall. His energy felt boundless. He’d never take his legs for granted again, that was certain.

And he’d made good sales today, many of them from friendly regulars wondering where he’d been. Farmers Markets only made up a small percentage of Midori Farm’s income, but taking part in them was an integral part of the locally grown movement and Link was proud to be part of it. In fact, he was pretty bummed out that the afternoon had gone by so quickly.

Thor was usually working at this time, and he had been surprised when after the recent events of quakes and strange events, his bosses had declared a day off. That almost never happened. He suspected that truly they were rewriting the script to add some of the recent flavor into it. He was a little scared what they might come up with.

But he was taking advantage of it, being out in the sun. he was walking through the market, having arrived later than most. Some had left, but he had spent a few moments talking to Big Mac at the Johnson Apple Farms booth, and then wandered, slowly filling his quite full.

And when he found the Midori Farms booth, he was glad to see that not only was it still open, but that he was pretty sure he recognized the young man there from the Valarnet.

“Greetings. Would you be Link, by chance?”

Link, youthful and eager to please, lit up with curiosity as a man he had never met before seemed to recognize him. Or had they met. Link had never been called the sharpest knife in the drawer. “Uh yeah. I’m Link. And you’re...?”

“Thor Odinson. We spoke on Valarnet the other day.” He extended his hand to the other man and grinned. “It’s good to see a fellow dreamer.” He had started using the term a few months back, and it seemed like others had to. It seemed as good a term as any for those who had these strange dreams of other lives.

“Oh yeah!” Link’s brain had finally made the connection, with a little assistance, as usual. He put his hand into Thor’s. “The man with the hammer.”

Thor shook Link’s hand and grinned. Mayhap this man was not swift, but he seemed good and fair of spirits. “Yes. And you have a sword, if I recall. Have you had more dreams?”

Link shook his head. “No no...” His disappointment was obvious. “No new ones.” He still didn’t know how his adventure with Navi ended.

"They will come, my friend. Trust in your heart and you will find the way. " Thor nodded. Dreams seemed to keep going until they reached a stopping point. What that point would be for Link, Thor didn't know.

The boy nodded thoughtfully. “The friend I share them with says we save the world, so...” He grinned and shrugged. “I hope the dreams come, soon. Can I get you anything? Er, Artichokes? Eggs? Milk?”

“I’ll take all of the above. I’m going to have a dinner party.” Thor smiled. He glanced along the table, then nodded. “Do you do deliveries?”

Link blinked for a moment, his brain making the shift from an immediate sale to a large-scale delivery. “Oh yeah. Of course.” He had a few regular egg and milk orders that he filled on a weekly basis. “How much do you need? And when? Now?”

"One week from today. " He rattled off a list of items for the delivery. It was no small list.

Link found some paper and wrote everything down. Some might have used a phone or tablet to take notes, but Link didn't own things like that. "Okay, that's not a problem at all." He smiled. "You know... If you ever have the time, I'd like to see that hammer of yours."

“Of course. What are you doing when you go offshift tonight?” Thor smiled. He was not shy of his hammer. It was part of him in a way few things could ever be and he thought Link could appreciate it.

Link shrugged. "Nothing. I just have to get the eggs and milk into the refrigerator." He continued to grin. The life of a farmer could get pretty lonely and it was hard to connect with the non-farming crowd. He was always happy to make new friends.

“Then we can have dinner, then, and I can show you Mjolnir.” Thor nodded.

Link looked down at his supplies. “Well... how about you come to my farm? It’s just outside Lake Forest. Is that too far?”

Thor smiled. “Not at all. I can meet you there, once I stow my purchases, and we can eat and talk.” Thor thought it a good ideas to do this on some place Link would find calming anyway. Some people found Mjolnir disturbing.

Link gave him the complete address and for the time being, they parted ways. He continued his packing where he’d left left off, though with even more speed, both happy to have made such a large sale and eager to get home and prepare.

Thor showed up at the appointed hour, smiling. He had set his things away, and dressed for the evening in casual blue jeans and plaid, and then piled into his car and headed that way. When he arrived, he pulled down the driveway and headed for the man’s main house, and stepped out, hoping he was on time. He went for the door, knocking, hmming to himself.

In the meantime, Link had checked on the cows and chickens, tidied up where it was needed, and put the heat on beneath some stew from the day before. He’d also brought down his sword, laying it beside the staircase, ready to be shown.

Link opened the door with a grin already on his face. “Hope it wasn’t too hard to find the farm.”

“Not at all. I’ve had some experience, lately, traveling around Orange County.” He smiled. “You have nice land here.” He nodded. The whole area seemed pretty and the farm well taken care of.

“It’s just under ten acres,” Link replied. He was proud of what he’d accomplished and of what his parents had done before him. The farm was successful and he was self-made, even if he was only twenty. “There’s some land that stretches behind the barn. It used to be marked by a silo.”

“Very impressive. A well done job.” He’d done a little digging on his way over and heard some of this. “Used to be?”

He was curious now.

“It fell.” There was a slight waver in Link’s voice. The crash of the silo had brought about the death of his parents, but it was a story he was reluctant to tell. Understandably so. He wasn’t a guarded person, but it wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to talk about right off the bat. And truthfully, it had happened so long ago that saying It fell no longer felt like a truncated explanation.

Thor nodded, gently clapping his hand to Link’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, my friend. We all have darker tales in our past.” He nodded. “Come, let us sit, and talk of brighter things.”

Link lifted an eyebrow. He wasn’t surprised by things like magic anymore. If Thor could read him somehow, that was something to ask about later. For now, he nodded in kind and gestured toward the kitchen. “I’ve got some food heating up... Oh wait. Let me show you this first.””

The younger man picked up his sword from its place of rest beside the staircase. It was a longsword with a royal blue hilt, adorned with a simple triangular crest. The scabbard was matching blue with gold plating. It was pretty, but not decorative. It was a sword that was meant to be put to use, rather than hang on a wall.

Thor simply responded to the waver and the words, it was part of who he was, to see people and to respond to them. And why he loved acting. He smiled, following. Then he nodded, looking to the sword, and he could feel how solid it was, how real.

“It is a mighty sword, my friend. and it will fit you just fine some day.” Thor knew this young man had to be the rightful possessor to get it, so he would grow into it, in a way.

Thor laid a hand at his hip, and Mjolnir, invisible until then, rippled into view as he lifted it to in front of him. It was alien, and powerful and it looked and felt so, the stone of it not looking like any stone of Earth. “This is Mjolnir, my hammer, and my true weapon.”

“Woah,” Link gasped. “Did you just pull that out of the air?” It was too big to have missed and Link had keen eyes.

“Nay. It rests at my hip all the time, but none see it unless I will that it be so.” Thor smiled softly. “Mjolnir is mine, and it does not let others see it unless I want it to.” He raised it. “It will not allow another to lift it, but touch it, you may, if you like.” He knew it was an awesome weapon, the equal of the young man’s sword.

Link stretched out his hand with childlike curiosity. “What do you mean, can’t lift it? It just won’t budge?”

Thor held it out for the other to touch and see. It would feel weird, and a little hot. “It will not, unless I or my father will it to do so.” He smiled. “Such is the enchantment of it.”

Link did discover it was warm to the touch. It also seemed to push his fingers away, the same way magnets repel one another. “What does it do? I mean, how do you fight with it?”

Thor smiled. “Well, several ways. I either hold it and hit things with it, and it magnifies my strength, or I hurl it at things, and it comes back. And sometimes. I use it to channel electricity at foes.”

“Can you do those things here?” Link’s face lit up. His sword had a few magic powers, but none of them had carried over yet. “Could you show me?”

Thor smiled at Link’s smile and enthusiasm. “Sure, but, ah, outside. And somewhere where I won’t hurt anything.’ He did not want to wreck his new friend’s farm.

Link waved him towards the door. “There’s a forest not too far from here. You passed it on your way up. We can go there. It’s not too dark.” He stepped outside and continued to signal Thor should follow. He brought his sword along as well, as if was no big deal to walk through an open field with an obvious weapon.

“Sounds like a plan. “ He followed along, smiling. This would be interesting. In the air, open and free, he let himself limber up, swinging the hammer and bouncing it in his hands.

“Such a place sounds eminently suitable.”

As Link promised, the forest was only a short walk, ten minutes at most. The trees were old and thick there, far older than anything else that lived in the area. But there were also a few sickly ones that needed pruning. And some were already dead.

Link led Thor to one such as that.

“Stand back and watch out.” Thor nodded and stepped inbetween it and Link, and let himself swing and then hit the tree, solidly, near the base. With a sound not unlike an explosion, the tree base shattered and the pieces slammed into Thor and the underbrush, and bounced off of him.

When it stopped, the tree had fallen and there was a space some three feet tall straight through and all around that was simply gone, reduced to kindling.

“Mjolnir will deliver blows even I could not without it.”

Link’s eyes were round as dinner plates, the whites bright even in the fading dusk light. As the hammer struck, he had cried out in surprise. The very earth had seemed to shake. Now, he stood agape. He circled the tree, touching the hole Thor had made with a shaking hand.

“That’s... really something.” the boy said, nearly dumbstruck.

“It is a weapon of war, not peace. It destroys.” His voice was quiet. Mjolnir was amazing, but it was also destruction given power, and he always had to recall that.

“Yeah but... you seem like a good guy.” Link replied. The phrase did take on an extra meaning. One of the good guys. Thor. With his hammer of justice. Or something like that.

“I am. But dream me was a warrior, and he was a crown prince of a kingdom that might have to defend entire galaxies against planets full of rampaging beings. He needed a weapon of power.” Thor held it close, and nodded. “I have it through the dreams.”

Link pulled his sword from its sheath. He sensed his power and mission was nothing like Thor’s, even though his dreams were incomplete, but he wasn’t the jealous sort.

Thor smiled to Link. “Yours is a fine sword. A fine weapon.” He knew nothing of it, and he was curious about it. “What have your dreams told you?”

“That I come from another place and time,” Link said, almost casually. He was eager to believe everything he dreamed was true. “And that the goddesses entrusted me with a mission to seal the door against a prince of evil. The only thing is, I don’t know if I accomplish it or not.”

Thor nodded, smiling. “You’ll learn in time. The dreams will go on. Just give it time.” He smiled a little brighter. “And you can choose what of the dreams to hold in you.”

Link gave his sword a few slices through the air. It made a very pleasing ZIIIP noise with each cut. “I’d like to believe there’s a hero in me somewhere.”

“I am sure there is. If you wish there to be, it will come out when it needs to.” Thor smiled. “Simply give it time.”

FIN.