It's Magic, My Dear

My attention was caught by the ground under my boots as I looked down. I heard the man grumble and groan as he stood, but I dismissed him as a drunk that was caught in the storm.
But oh the ground!
My insides were just shivering with a mixture of shock and excitement.
We had driven straight into a crater created in the earth by whatever amazing storm that had been, but it was what was in the crater that had my lips stretched in the biggest smile my face could handle. Carved into the hard under crust of dirt were patterns. Delicate lines that were so intricate my eyes couldn’t keep up with them.
Quickly I dug my hand into my backpack and took out my camera and began snapping as many photos as I could take. Soon I realised as my feet walked around the crater that it was just so huge. There was no way I could capture ever line and every curve. But it was still utterly stunning. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at!
I had only ever seen these patterns in the books I would pour over at College and specifically the books-

“-We need to get him to the hospital!” Jane jerked my shoulder pulling me from my giddiness.

“Huh?” I bent my back just past Jane and caught Erik and Darcy hauling the man in the back of the van. “Wasn’t he just up and stumbling around?”

“Yeah, but Darcy freaked out and tazed him.”

“Ooh, as you do.” I looked back down at the ground. “Okay.” My breath passed my lips in the form of a heavy sigh. I was sure I had taken enough photos. “I’ll walk back.”

“What?” Jane furrowed her brow at me. “You’re not walking back.”

“But-“ No, I decided that I didn’t have enough photos after all.

“No. Get in the van.” She made that tutting sound of disbelief and made sure to grab my arm and push me forward as she walked. “Are you insane?!”

I considered her accusation with a slight incline of my head. “Some have debated.”

“Oh shush. Don’t step on him.” Jane let go of my arm as I began to climb in the back of the van.

Looking down at the man I realised just how…beefy, he was. His arms were like thick muscular tree trunks with a chest and shoulders as wide as you would want. “Jeez, he’s big.”

“Don’t worry; I have this if he wakes up again.” Darcy waved her taser at me before aiming back at the hulking man of muscles.

My smile was uneasy at the thought of her waving that around again. “That’s…great.”

I think Darcy noticed that unease as she shrugged and gave me a wide eyed look of obviousness. “He freaked me out!”

“Alright there. Just don’t go waving that thing around, you’ll take an eye or something out.” My hands were held up in mock surrender with a grin over my face.

“So I guess you got your spectacular light show tonight.”

“Ehehe, I guess so.” I replied knowing that I got more than just that.

*

The next morning I had driven back out to the crater spot in my own car without Jane, Erik or Darcy. They had spent the morning getting back from the hospital after dropping off that just really, really large guy.
Damn he was large. Anyway…
But as I travelled back out there on the same dusty, bumpy road I noticed a crowd of locals gathering around something a few miles off. And they were sure gathering quickly. I wasn’t sure what it was that had caught their attention but I thought that a look wasn’t going to hurt. Even as my gaze lingered on our spot.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I walked towards the lip of another crater and looked down. There were at least four men all bent at the waist and tugging furiously at something stuck in the ground.

“Satellite crashed out ‘ere last night.” A voice answered me. I didn’t bother to look up at the voice before navigating my way down into the pit.

“Oh my stars.” I gasped as my eye fells upon the satellite stuck in a mass of rock and earth.

That wasn’t a satellite…that was…no. I had to call Jane first. It couldn’t have been.

“Jane where are you?” I asked the moment she answered.

“At the hospital.” Her voice sounded distressed.

“Again? Are you okay? Did something else happen?!”

“No. Just…Tiggie in the photos of the storm last night there was something in it.”

Her cryptic rhythm confused me. “What do you mean by something?”

“I mean it looks like there was a body of someone in it.”

We both paused for a moment and I knew what she was trying to tell me. “And you think it’s the guy you hit with the van last night.”

“I am about to pick him up from the hospital. Can we meet you at the Diner in an hour?”

“Sure. I’ll see you then. Oh and Jane…I’ve got something to tell you when we get there.” I hung up my phone and tucked it into my pocket before travelling back down into the crater and pulling out my little camera.
The SD card was almost full from the images of the night before, but there was still room for this magnificent piece of forgery sitting embedded in the earth by my feet.
It simply couldn’t be.

Soon I left the scene and headed towards the Diner. In the middle of almost nowhere there was only one Diner to go to. My car pulled into the crudely painted lines of the car park and I noticed the van already parked.
The doors bell tingled above me as I walked in with my backpack containing my netbook and camera slung over my shoulder. Paranoia always told me to keep those two things on me at all times and never leave them out of my sight.

It was easy to spot the table they were at. The hulking stranger was the largest guy in the place and the only one with long blonde hair that I was sure the young waitress walking away from them was jealous of.

“And good morning my scrumptious little friends.” Dragging a seat from the table over, I settled into a spot next to Darcy and Erik.

“I am not little.” The stranger was the first to reply, not that it was a question that needed one.

“I can see that.” I nodded my apologies at his offended look. “I’m Tygera, but Tiggie will suffice.” Offering my hand I noticed the thickness of his skin as he took it.

“That is a very strange name. I am Thor of Asgard and son of Odin.” Well didn’t his introduction send me into Ancient God Mythology over drive, but I managed to keep my mouth shut for the time.

Erik glanced over at me with a stern expression that meant we needed to talk later and I tilted my head in response. “So…I went back out to the site this morning and you’ll never guess what turned up out there.”

“What?” I knew Jane would have been the first to bite.

“Well people are saying it’s a Satellite, but I reckon it’s something else. About fifty miles west of here next to our site it is another crater. With something big, unmovable and damn heavy stuck in it.” My eyes glanced towards the man calling himself Thor and noticed the assured glint in his bright blue eyes. And I knew he was onto what I was talking about which was just that little extra bit of proof that I needed.

The chair groaned as he slid it back and stood. “Fifty miles west you said?”

I nodded.

“That’s where I must go then.” Darcy and I watched as Thor, possibly Thor, moved his heavy feet over the Diner floor towards the door.

Jane shot up from her chair to follow Thor, which naturally encouraged Erik to follow and Darcy as well. However I stayed in my seat watching from the window. I had no interest in listening to the banter, I could already tell it would involve Jane fluffing over Thor. From the looks I caught her giving him, it was going to be a lot of fluff. Trust me, I know those looks and what they mean. A sister always knows.
But what I was really concerned about was what was right in front of me. An actual tangible Norse God.
I knew Erik was thinking the same by the look he shot me, thought he was marginally less enthused by the idea than I was. My whole life I had studied them in one way or another and was one hundred per cent sure that the man claiming to be Thor was really Thor.
It would explain better than any theory how he’d come to be at the storm site the exact same time as we were without any research data near. The knowing expression when I had talked about the second sight. I didn’t mention anything about a hammer, but he knew.
So as I sat there in all my thrill, I wondered why the oldest Son of Odin was in New Mexico?

That was the stump in my road.

Moving from the table I did eventually travel outside the join the others in time to see Thor stride down the road. “So, big guys leaving us already?”

“He is going to the site.” Darcy replied kicking the curb under her boot.

“And Jane has a face of giddy because…?”

“He kissed her hand.”

I chuckled. “Fair enough.”

“NO!” Jane’s sudden high pitched squeal caught us all off guard.

We all rounded in her direction expecting something horrible to be there waiting for us, and something truly horrible it was indeed. A black truck drove past sporting all of Jane’s research equipment.

“Oh this isn’t good.” My lips muttered before finding my car. “Get in, my baby is faster than your clunker. Let’s see what’s going on.”

“God what’s happening now?” Erik cursed as he piled into the back seat beside Darcy. I glanced up into the rear view mirror to catching a knowing shadow ghost his eyes and then it was gone.

I revved my engine and it roared to life with a purring fury and my booted foot slammed down on the pedal. “We’ll soon find out.”