The trees swished wildly in the wind as a small, thin figure clasping a coat tightly about itself fought it's way up the steep hill and into the deep cave. There, just as it was told, was the infamous god Loki; bound by iron to three rocks as a giant serpent dripped venom into his face. The figure waited until the missing figure, Loki's wife, came back with the bowl to hold the venom away from her husband's face.

"Mortal," rumbled Loki, "why do you trespass here?"

"What if," said the figure slowly unbuttoning it's heavy, quilted coat, "I could release you from your bonds without forcing the hand of Ragnorak?"

Hope opened her eyes and placed the outside of her wrist against her forehead. That dream again, she thought. She knew that dreams were the subconcious's way of telling the rest of the brain something, but what was her dream trying to tell her?

There was a pounding on her door before her current Nanny burst in. "It's time to get up!" snapped the woman in a cold, clipped voice as her shoes managed to squeak in the plush carpet. She walked across the room and threw open the sash to reveal--total darkness. She ignored the darkness outside the window as she said, "It is high time that you start getting ready for school."

Hope sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Since you can't seem to get up and ready in a reasonable manner I've decided that we should start the day earlier," snapped the woman.

In all the two and a half months that she had known this woman she had yet to hear her nanny speak in anything other than a snap. She yawned and scratched her head. It was going to be another long morning.

"Oh, look," sneered a familiar voice as Hope walked up the stairs to her world reknowned prestigious school, "it's the freak."

"Oh, look," said Hope mimicking them mockingly without ever turning around. "It's the moron."

Hank grabbed her shoulder and wrenched her around. "Who are you calling stupid?" he demanded.

"You," said Hope. "Especially if you think you can do anything to me this close to the building and actually get away with it. There are teachers everywhere."

Hank clenched his teeth and shoved her away from him. "Freak."

Hope smoothed the wrinkles out of her uniform. "You mentioned that already."

"Hope!" yelled one of the teachers from a window on the second story of the ancient brick building. When she looked up he waved desperately. "Hope, Strong's escaped again and I can't find him!" Strong was the science class's pet corn snake. In the opinion of most of the staff and all the students his name should have been Houdini.

"I'm coming!" said Hope.

This was one of the reasons why her classmates insisted that she was a freak. Not only was she the only one who could find the snakes when they escaped, she could talk to them. Well, everyone could talk to snakes. It was just that they actually talked back to Hope. Then there was the fact that she could always find Strong, but then he always went to the same place. Not that anyone would ever believe her about it, so she simply didn't tell anyone.

She walked down the hall to the girl's bathroom, and proceeded to enter the third stall from the door. She crouched down, so as not to soil her uniform, in front of a small hole in the wall. "Come out Strong. Strong, I know you're there."

"What a freak," laughed a girl as she and her friends walked out of the room.

Hope ignored her. If you told yourself that you didn't care long enough, after a while you began to actually believe, even if it was just a little bit. "Strong."

The snake's head slowly peeked out of the hole. This isn't nice, Hope, he complained. She hasn't come in yet.

Hope sighed. Everytime Strong escaped from the science lab he went straight for this particular girl's restroom and waited for Angie to come in to use the toilet where he would slither across the floor to the sink. Angie was deathly afraid of snakes, and Strong just loved the sound of her screaming. It would probably help her case if she didn't keep tapping the glass on his aquarium. "Come on," she said putting her hand down by his head. "You know it worries Mr. Kaiser when you escape like that."

He should be more careful about closing the lid, complained Strong as he slithered up Hope's arm.

"He put's books on top of the lid," protested Hope.

Not last night he didn't, said Strong smugly as he settled in Hope's hair. They'd talked about this. Hope said that having him there scared people, and Strong said that was the best part. She simply sighed again and strode out into the hall. Instantly a passage opened in front of them as Hope made her way to the science room that Strong had come from. That girl must have hit hard times, observed Strong of a girl who particularly cowered. because her underwear has a hole in it. Oh, and that girl has pink little polka dots on her panties!

Hope pressed her hand to her steaming cheeks as she tried to tune out Strong's happy monotone. She wasn't entirely sure why she was the only one who could hear him, but she was very glad that was true since most of those girls he mentioned would gladley have strangled him despite the fact that he was a snake and in the course of a normal day they were afraid of him.

Finally she made it up the stairs and to the room. With the long ease of practice she pried Strong out of her hair and placed him in his tank. "Please stay there," she told him. He hissed softly and curled up to sleep. "I don't think that's a yes," she said turning to Mr. Kaiser.

"Thank you Hope," said Mr. Kaiser. His hair was all ruffled like normal, his shirt and pants were ruffled, his whiskers were just a little way out of his chin, and his glasses kept sliding down his nose. She would never say it, but he was her favorite teacher. There wasn't another teacher in the school who was as passionate about their subject.

"It's no problem," said Hope smiling slightly. "He's a pain, but I like 'rescuing' him." She waved at the teacher and left the room to start her first class of the day.

"So," said Mr. Kaiser after she had gone and before the next class had come in. "She hasn't awakened yet. That's good. Makes my job all the easier."

The teacher was droning. The room was stifling. Her classmates were too close. In her defense, Hope struggled against it as much as she could, but it wasn't her fault she had a window seat. Suddenly she stood up, unlocked the window, threw it open, and walked out onto the thin ledge that encircled the building between floors. Before long her English teacher stuck her head out the window. "Hope Dugan! Get back in here now!"

For some reason everytime she escaped from the classroom, for just a little while she was a different person. She turned and grinned at the teacher, and the woman jumped in place. "Sorry, Teach!" she called out. "I'm flying free right now!" With that she jumped.

She couldn't hear the individual classroom chatter, but she guessed that they were taking bets on whether or not she'd make it to the tree outside the building. There were two of them planted on all four sides of the building, but she always aimed for this particular one. She wasn't entirely sure why. Still, she made it to the thick branch that seemed as if it had grown specifically for that purpose, and she used that to jump down to the ground below. When she reached the ground she looked up at her classroom, gave a haughty wave, and then strolled off the campus to roam around the city until final bell when she had to report to her special class. Like always she went to the park and strolled around. Normally she just sort of wandered as she took in the (relatively) fresh air and reveled in her momentary freedom. On this particular day, however, there was a boy her age sitting in the shade of a tree and reading a book, so she wandered over to him and plopped down beside him. "You seem to really be enjoying that book," she said. "What's it about?"

The boy jumped, the book was flung in the air, but he neatly caught it before it landed down. "You--you startled me," he said looking at her. "Are--are you human?"

"Unless my mother lied to me," said Hope. She smiled at him. "My name's Hope. What's yours?"

"Josh," said the boy. He was blushing so hard that his skin was starting to hurt. "Aren't--aren't--why are you here?"

"I got bored of class," said Hope. "What about you? Why are you here?"

"I--I--uh--," suddenly he brandished his book. "ThisisabouttheNorsegodBalder!"

Hope laughed. "Slow down. Who's Gobalder?"

He flushed again. "Not--not Gobalder. The Norse god Balder." He looked down at the book he was holding as if it was something that he'd never seen before. Hope followed his gaze and saw that he was shaking. "H--he was ki--killed by--by his bro--bro--brother."

"Wow," said Hope. "Talk about sibling rivalry."

"It's not--not like that," said Josh. "He--he was tri--tri--tricked by Lo--ki." He smiled shyly, but he didn't look up from the book in his hands. "They--they s--say that he--he's go--go--good luck."

"What do you think?" she asked him. "Do you think he's good luck?" An idea was forming in her head, but she wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it work.

He looked at her and flushed again. "I--I think so. Do--do you--come--come here of--of--often?"

"Usually," said Hope. "Although, I'm not sure that I'll be able to get here again any time soon." She grinned. "My parents are gonna be soooo mad that I ditched class." And,  she thought, they should be mad enough t o get rid of that monster they hired as a nanny.

"You seem pretty happy," said Josh.

Hope laughed. "I'm happy whenever I'm not in class!" Suddenly she whipped her head around and put her face right up next to his. "Hey!" she said. "You said that without stammering!" She smiled at him.

He looked away. "Why--why do--do you ha--hate sch--schoo--school so mu--much?"

"My classroom feels like a cave. It's creepy."

"HOPE DUGAN!" bellowed a voice.

"Well, that's my cue. It was nice meeting you, and I hope we can meet again soon."