Wanda's Wild Ride Through Wonder World

"You're a feisty one," the old man said, "But I don't think you can make it much further."

He was sitting behind a desk inside a large tent. It was filled with maps and charts and some other strange things. Lucy wondered how he could see anything in here... The tent itself had no windows, and its only source of light seemed to be the two small lamps on his desk. She couldn't say whether they were burning or not, because they gave off no heat at all. As she looked around, she saw that everything in the tent seemed to be covered in a thin layer of frost. She supposed that's what happens when you live high up north, but she'd never been this far north before. She supposed her parents would have taken her there if they'd had any idea how to get here.

"No offense sir..." She replied, "But I think I can."

'there's nothing else for me back home,' she thought to herself as she tried to summon the courage to speak out loud. 'I can't let him know about my mother...'

"Yes well..." He said, peering up from his papers and rubbing his eyes, "... We shall see."

She watched as he rose from his seat and walked over to a large cabinet against one wall. He opened the door almost ceremoniously and began rummaging through it for something. After a few moments, he pulled out a small object wrapped in leather and held it out towards her.

"This is for you," he said quietly, "The only gift I can give you after all you've been through."

'Well that's weird,' Lucy thought as she took it from him and unwrapped the leather carefully. Inside lay a small silver ring with engravings all over it.

"That is Thor's Hammer... The symbol of Asgard," he explained with great gravitas as he gestured towards the ring, "It has great power within it."

Lucy's jaw dropped as she looked at him incredulously. Did this man just hand her Thor's Hammer? She felt like laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all... Did Thor even exist? Was this man for real?

"Uh..." She mumbled quietly, trying not to laugh out loud, "Thank you... Sir!" She smiled awkwardly as she looked down at the ring in her hands and tried her best not to burst out laughing all over again at how absurdly fortunate she felt right now! The old man turned around quickly and returned to his seat at his desk without saying another word while Lucy continued looking at the ring in awe. She reached into her pocket with shaking hands and pulled out 11 golden coins: The reward money for saving four villages from an evil warlord who had attacked them without warning... That's right! Now she could buy silly things like this! ... Maybe even more serious things too! If only Thor really did exist... She wondered if he'd give her his hammer too!

Suddenly, Lucy heard a noise outside the tent - A thunderous roar of wind followed by a booming voice speaking terribly fast in an unfamiliar language! Just as suddenly though, everything went quiet again and everything went dark except for a small spark of lightning encircling the old man's body - It grew larger until he was surrounded by bright white light emanating from all sides! Then suddenly everything went silent again just as abruptly as it had started... 'What just happened?' Lucy wondered frantically while she stared into the darkness ahead of her with wide eyes!

Suddenly, there was another loud noise - This time accompanied by calls of alarm outside the tent! Then there were footsteps approaching rapidly on the icy ground outside... And then someone grabbed hold of the tent flap violently and roughly tore it open!