Thor's Arrow

The Daily Flash Fiction Challenge for 5/10/2012
Contest prompt: “ocean, drive, arrow”
299 words
(I didn’t get this done in time)

***

“I cannot believe you don’t like the beach,” the woman said to her boyfriend. She had kicked off her sandals a while ago and was enjoying the warm sand between her toes wearing shorts and a big straw hat. “Look at the sun and the sky and the ocean,” she said.

“I didn’t care for the drive,” he whined.

She held her hat and spun around, extending her arms out like a figure skater until a breeze knocked it off. She chased it as it rolled down the beach. “Look what I found!” she said with a smile.

A golden shafted arrow stuck out of the sand that glistened in the sunshine. Crystals and gems adorned it, and the fletchings were made of the most beautiful feathers she had ever seen.

Her boyfriend came to see when they felt a thump in the sand. “I search for an arrow,” a commanding voice said from behind them. They turned around to see a red bearded man with an ornate bow. His hair flowed in the breeze and his eyes were the color of lightning.

“Who are you?” the man asked.

“I am Thor!” he said. When he spoke his name, the cloudless sky thundered. “Odin mocks me, depriving me of my hammer because I kept smashing things. What else is a hammer for? So he gave me this ‘more elegant weapon’ and cast me down here until I learned humility. And he said I was arrogant. Meeeee?”

“Yeah, ridiculous,” the woman said.

“It was right over...” the man said, pointing to the place in the sand where the arrow no longer was. She held something behind her back.

Thor pointed at the crystal arrowhead he could see behind her. “Is that my arrow?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said. “Finders keepers.”