Page 6 of Competing Against Thor

Thor was already in the station next to me, seeming to be focused on warping something with his hammer. I watched him for a moment, admiring the way his muscles flexed as he swung it. There was nothing showy about them, the way he moved made that clear.

He turned around, spotting me watching and I scrambled for something to say that didn't sound like I was an imbecile who only wanted to ogle him. "Hey,Daisy Chains," he said.

"Hi, Thor." It still felt strange to call him that, but without actually knowing his real name, it wasn't like I could call him anything else.

"I like your flowers," he said, gesturing to my new sign. "How did you shape them?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to work out how to beat me?"

"Absolutely." He grinned.

I laughed despite myself. "I shaped them by hand," I answered anyway. "I do it a lot when I'm sculpting."

An impressed expression crossed his face. "That explains a lot."

"It does?"

He nodded. "It's what I thought about your work before, there are lots of delicate pieces to them, which isn't something I'm good at." He lifted his hands so I could see them. They were large, like the rest of him, and he'd probably have no trouble picking me up.

My mouth became a little dry at the thought, and the ones that followed. I attempted to banish them from my mind. I was here to win the competition, not to drool over someone pretending to be a god.

Even if therewasa lot to drool over where Thor was concerned.

I cleared my throat. "Your cloud is delicate." I gestured to his sign. "And impressive, it doesn't look like it's made of metal."

"I suppose not," he responded. "I can show you how I did it, if you want."

I raised an eyebrow. "You'd show the competition how you work?"

He shrugged. "I'll show you a technique that takes years to perfect. I'm not exactly worried that you're going to be able to pull it off today."

"Fair point." I should say no. There was no use in getting friendly with any of the competition when I needed to focus on beating them, but I was intrigued, and not just by the technique, but by Thor himself. "I'd like to see."

He gestured to his station. "We should have enough time, Mel said we're not starting filming for another hour."

"Mel?" I echoed. "I thought our producer was called Denise?"

"Mel is our producer, Denise is her assistant."

"That doesn't really clear it up," I admitted.

"Mel as in Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy."

I blinked a few times. "A Muse."

"They own the station."

"Right, and you're Thor." Though now he said that, I did recall something about the Muses and a TV station, though I hadn't given much thought to it in the past.

He chuckled. "IamThor, I don't know how you want me to prove it."

"I don't know, maybe magical hammer recall or something like that."

A smile twisted at his lips. "Like this?" He pulled the hammer off his belt and let it drop to the floor. For a moment, nothing happened, but then it bounced back up into his open hand. He caught it with ease.

I cleared my throat. "It's a basic spell."

He shrugged. "Sure, normally. But the hammer is enchanted. Want to try it?" He held it out to me.