"Come on, little wolf, it's time to wake up," Loki told you as he gently shook you awake. You cracked open your eyes and saw that the sun wasn't even up yet. You had a rule about being up before the sun: except for class and work you refused.

"Lo, the sunisn't even awake yet," you whined and cuddled back up with Loki, snuggling into his arms as you tried to tug the blankets better around yourself. Except the annoying god was pulling the blankets offof you and sitting up. "Loki~" you whined as he made you sit up. You looked over at him with sleep bleary eyes. It had been early in the morning when you'd finally gone to bed and it was stillearly in the morning.

He chuckled. "Come along, silly puppy. We have plans today which involve you being awake," he teased. You stuck your tongue out at him, but after rubbing your eyes, finally consented to getting out of bed. "Good puppy," he told you with a smirk.

You rolled your eyes. "Annoying god," you grumbled. He laughed and joined you getting out of the bed. "What are we doing that means we have to be up so early?" you whined as Loki pressed a bundle of clothes into your hands. You sneezed automatically at his use of magic when he summoned the clothes.

"We're going out and I'm showing you more of Asgard," he told you warmly. "You'll see soon," he turned you by your shoulders and steered you toward an adjacent room. "The bathing room is through here. Don't fall asleep, or I shall have to come in there after you," he warned. You growled something unflattering at him and ducked into the bathroom to take care of necessities and dress in whatever he'd handed you. You were expecting another dress and instead found a very comfortable pair of black pants, designed for your tail, a black undershirt and a green tunic. You came back out to find Loki dressed similarly. "You look lovely as ever, little wolf," he told you brightly.

"No dress today?" you asked him, amused. You'd been under the impression that all women wore dresses all the time.

"Not until dinner. We are going riding this morning," he told you warmly, letting you in on at least some of his plans so you wouldn't worry. "And don't fret. The horses are well trained. They will not fear having a wolf among them," he reassured you.

"You've thought of everything," you told him and went to him to steal a kiss.

"Of course I did," he told you smugly and kissed the top of your head, between the wolf-ears there. "Come along, little wolf, we do not wish to be late," he told you and offered you his arm. You took it and walked with him down to the stables.

You stiffened when you got there. Not only were you and Loki going out, but Thor, Frigga, Odin, and Lady Sif were all going as well.

Loki chuckled. "Surprise, little wolf," Loki told you warmly. "Mother wished to go riding with us, so naturally the Allfather and my oaf of a brother wanted to as well,"

"And Lady Sif?" you asked as Loki led you over to the group.

He chuckled. "Father wishes for Thor to choose to court Lady Sif," he explained quietly. "It is not going very well so far, but they have been friends for centuries, so mayhaps my brother will get his head out of his ass soon and realize that Sif is perfect for him,"

"My head is not in my ass," Thor said pleasantly as he came to meet you and kissed your cheek. "Good morning, Lady wolf, I'm not kissing you, brother," he told Loki.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Good, I'd hate to have to stab you in front of Mother. It upsets her so," he teased and you all laughed. Morning greetings were passed around and Loki led you over to the horses. "This lovely little mare has been picked out for you, my darling," he told you brightly as he introduced you to the sweet little horse who wasn't at all afraid of you.

"I don't know how to ride," you reminded Loki softly.

He chuckled. "Don't fret, dear. You have a natural grace and we're just riding at a walk. You'll be fine and we'll teach you more properly later," he told you and helped you onto the horse's back. He showed you how to hold the reins, gave you a very basic rundown of what to do, and reassured you again that you didn't have to worry, the horse would follow the others. You mostly just had to not fall off.

"It's really tall up here," you told him nervously.

He chuckled. "You'll be just fine, my brave little wolf," he told you and swung gracefully into the saddle of his horse nearby.

"Showoff," you told him a bit nervously.

You had nothing to be afraid of. The group got moving shortly after and your little mare happily went with the others, following behind Sif's horse. Odin was riding Slepnir, the eight legged horse that Loki insisted he did notgive birth to, with Frigga riding a beside him, managing to ride side saddle somehow, a feat that you couldn't comprehend. Sif and Thor followed them, followed by you and Loki.

You enjoyed the peaceful ride, chatting with Loki as you got to see more of the country he grew up in. You rode for a long while, having breakfast in the saddle that Loki conjured for you all. Loki told you stories of various places, plants, and wildlife you saw as you were riding. You stopped briefly in a village so Frigga could make sure they didn't need any healing and Odin could get a report from the mayor, or whatever the village's equivalent was called.

You stopped at the edge of a lake and Loki and Frigga set up a picnic lunch, though their use of magic had you sneezing uncontrollably as they used so much of it all at once to set up the picnic. It was a huge feast as well, but barely fed all of the Asgardians and one werewolf. Frigga and even Odin told stories along with the rest of you while you ate. Odin still didn't like you, but wasn't openly hostile about it, so you both pretended that he didn't hate you on sight.

It was a wonderful outing.

Until the monsters, beasts? creatures? came out of the woods around you to attack your little group. Everyone stood in one movement, circling around Frigga as they drew their weapons. You shifted to wolf in the same movement, snarling at the monsters.

"Y/N, they're weak on the underside of their necks," Loki told you while Odin barked an order for Sif to protect the queen.

You bobbed your head to let Loki know you'd heard him and rushed toward the closest of the armored creatures. It was clear that magic just bounced off the things and blades were useless unless they could get under them. The Asgardians were too big to be able to get under the creatures easily, but you could. You left up from under the first one and locked your jaws in its jugular, spilling blue blood everywhere. You threw your body weight and threw the creature to the ground where the others could attack its defenseless underbelly. You moved on to the next creature, but it was bigger than the first, you weren't going to be able to throw it. You rushed in anyway, you were faster than they were and the creatures couldn't handle something darting in around their legs.

You shifted back to human under the largest one and a long blade appeared in your hand as you knew it would. You trusted Loki to know what you needed. You two fought well together by now. You thrust the blade deep into the creature's heart and shifted back to run before it squashed you as it died.

All in all, it wasn't that bad of a battle, once you opened up the creatures to be finished off by the others. They helped and covered you until you could get the monsters in position to be finished off by the others, but they had a hard time dealing with the armor. You didn't.

You yelped when one of them landed on you hard when it fell. You managed to squirm you way out form under it while Loki rushed over to help. "Are you alright?" he asked. You nodded and rushed off to the next creature, though you had to be careful as you were limping now, though only slightly while the adrenaline was pumping through you.

"Wolf!" Sif called as she was holding off the last creature with a long bladed staff while Frigga threw magic at it ineffectively. You ran to them with all that you were worth and leapt, latching your jaws into the underside of its throat. You shifted back to human while it howled in pain. There was a blade in your hand and you slew the creature, which landed at the queen's feet when it died.

You turned to Frigga. "Are you alright?" you asked her as the blade vanished from your hand.

She nodded and gave you a reassuring smile. "That was impressively done, darling," she told you warmly. You flushed at the praise from the queen.

Loki rushed over to you. "Are you alright, sweetheart?" he asked you with true concern. He'd seen you get squashed.

"As well as I can be considering that I got squashed by an armored elephant thing," you told him dryly. His concerned look just deepened. "I'm fine, Lo," you told him firmly and leaned up to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around you, glad that you were safe.

You couldn't help noting that Odin looked impressed with you and your skills.

Maybe even a monster like you had skills worth considering after all.

You tried not to get your hopes up, but maybe, maybe he was beginning to change his mind about you.