Maya did not expect her boring Friday night walk back home to end with finding a Valkyrie battered in the bushes. 

How did she know the woman was a Valkyrie? 

Well, how often do you find someone falling from the sky like a shooting star? With swan-like wings on their back, Norse armour shimmering in and out of existence, and their body covered with bleeding slash marks? 

Not so often, and if it happens to you regularly—consider questioning your lifestyle choices then. 

Maya was pretty desensitised, or relatively unfazed, seeing a real-life supernatural woman—since she lived in the modern world with access to the internet and fantasy novels.

The sight took her breath away. 

Though bruised and caked in blood and dirt as she lay in a bed of bushes, the woman looked breathtaking. Maya couldn’t help but stare. 

Her pristine white dress, dotted in red and torn, was shimmering and contrasting beautifully with her dark skin and toned body. It was sleeveless and only held together by a brooch clipped on her left shoulder, reaching only as far as her thighs, showing off her strong legs. 

The Valkyrie stirred with a groan. Her platinum blond hair fell over her face. 

Maya shook herself out of her reverie and trudged through the thick, thorny foliage. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” said Maya in false confidence. She struggled to pull the mysterious warrior woman out with a less-than-helpful Rautek grip. “Oof, you’re heavy… or I’m weak. Shouldn’t have skipped my New Year’s resolution to hit the gym.” 

Maya was glad none of the usually barbeque-enthusiastic neighbours of her apartment complex were outside. She didn’t have the time or energy to explain why she had a bleeding and unconscious woman with her, dragging through the paved streets and up a slope. 

Maya disliked how the quacking of the ducks sounded like laughter—as if they were mocking her struggle.

“Cursed stairs… hang in there,” Maya grunted and sent a heartfelt Thank you! to the heavens that her apartment was only on the top floor. “God forbid we don’t leave a blood trail behind, right?”

Maya laughed and glanced at her unconscious stranger. “Right, sorry.”

As Maya entered her apartment and went into her bedroom, she lay down the Valkyrie over the soft and freshly cleaned sheets of her bed. 

The Valkyrie hissed but reclined against the duvet. It looked as though she stopped breathing. Maya contemplated first calling an ambulance, but it might not end well. Thankfully, she had enough first aid equipment at home to improvise—meaning she had enough antiseptics and clean sheets to use as impromptu bandages.

She struggled to keep the protesting Valkyrie in place, who revolted at getting her wounds treated. So Maya resorted to the only thing she could think of in that situation.

 She sat down on the Valkyrie.

“Stay still, or it will only hurt more!” Warned Maya. She clenched her thighs around the Valkyrie’s midsection, keeping her in place. 

She leaned forward, brushing away the wavy hair and cleaning the cut on the forehead. With each dab, Maya found more subtly hidden and sun-kissed freckles. She couldn’t help but count them. 

Carefully, Maya dabbed the woman’s full lips, then washed off the makeup and kohl underneath her eyes before they suddenly fluttered open. 

Amber eyes that shone like gemstones stared into Maya’s own rich blue eyes. She was lost in them and felt the Valkyrie's arms softly wrap around her waist. 

With one quick motion, the Valkyrie turned in her bed, and Maya found herself hitting the side of the bed and falling off the edge with a thud. 

“Is this what they call being pushed off the bedside? Well, I don't like it!”