by Per Holbo
Chapter 7: Skrymer´s Glove
“Sif?” Thor stood in the doorway and looked inside the room. He appeared different than his usual self. More serious. Reluctant somehow. Sif sent him a loving smile.
“Hi,” she said and padded her hand on the chair beside her as an invitation for him to sit down. He came closer and sat down beside her his eyes fixed on hers. She felt his love and returned it by caressing his cheek, then her smile faded and she looked shocked and concerned. “You´re hurt,” she said and grabbed a small device from the table.
Thor still smiled, though his effort to hide his pain wasn´t all that successful. “You should see the other guy,” he said in a feeble attempt to joke about it, but then had to relax the muscles in his face as a jolt of pain made its way to his brain. He sat as still as he could, while Sif cleansed his wound with her small medical device, but after a while he started getting uneasy.
“Sif?” he said in such a concerned voice that she put down the device and looked him in the eyes, clearly alarmed.
“I have to go, my love,” he said, “I can´t stay for long. But first I need to tell you something.” The serious sound in his voice and the firm look in his eyes made her fight her growing urge to ask a whole bunch of questions and instead she just sat there in silence, encouraging him to go on with a nod of her head.
“No matter what happens out there, you must continue, understand?”
“Of course, Thor, you know I will... Why are you saying this?”
“No matter what, Sif! You can never give up - not even when everything looks completely hopeless, okay? Never give up! Promise me! Promise me, you will go on with this mission, no matter how bad everything seems to you, Sif! You got to promise me!”
She nodded with a puzzled expression on her face. Then Thor spinned his head toward a sound coming from the corridor, turned back to look at her, kissed her on her forehead and then got up and walked to the door, where he stopped to look over his shoulders.
“I´m sorry I can´t tell you more right now, but you must complete this mission!” he said, before going through the door and turning left down the corridor.
Sif sat there almost paralyzed for a split second. Then she got to her feet in a decision to go after him, but she didn´t even get to the door, before Freya suddenly popped in her head.
“Hi,” she said, “you ready yet? We are all waiting for you by the air lock...”
Sif frowned and looked suspiciously at Freya. “All of you?” she asked.
“Yeah, of course... You were supposed to be there a few minutes ago and we don´t have much time, so I decided to...” Freya stopped mid sentence as she noticed the strange look on Sif´s face.
“What´s going on, Sif? You alright?”
“I just... I don´t know, it was...” she began, but then decided not to tell Freya what had just happened. Instead she got her things and they both went right down the corridor. “It´s nothing,” Sif said as they walked toward the air lock, “I just have a lot on my mind.” Sif bit her lip, then got a grip. “Let´s just focus on the mission,” she said, hoping that Freya hadn´t noticed too much...