"Lady Hela?" Volstagg's daughter Hildy called as she scurried through the buddy Asgardian marketplace, popping onto a table for a minute to make sure she was heading in the right direction, before finally reaching Hela, who was examining various skeins of thread with her maid Leah, while her brothers lounged nearby.

"Hildy?" Was she late for a magic lesson she had promised the little girl? Hela didn't think she was, and why did she suddenly have a very bad feeling? "Is something wrong?"

"My brothers did something bad." Hildy told her. "They were wanting to have a sword fight, instead of doing their homework like they were supposed to."

"A sword fight." Sharp things and Hildy's brothers, not a good combination. "How much blood is there and please tell me that everyone still has the number of limbs that they started out with!"

"They didn't get to use swords. Papa locked them all up, and Mama won't let them in the kitchen anymore after they lost all of the spoons trying to dig a hole to Nornheim."

No access to swords. That was probably the most responsible parenting decision Volstagg had ever made. And no kitchen meant no knives. "What did they use for this fight, then?" Obviously they had used something from the way Hildy was hopping up and down anxiously.

"They used a spindle from a spinning wheel." Hildy told her.

"A spindle?" That bad feeling was getting stronger. "And where did they get this spindle?" Please don't let those three imps have somehow got their hands on the spindle she was afraid they had!

"From the man who makes that nice gold thread for you. I can't pronounce his name right. Only I don't think that he said it was okay if my brothers borrowed his spindle and then they lost it."

Yes, they had got the spindle she had feared they had and she was definitely seeing a disaster. "They lost it? Why am I thinking it's safe to assume that your brothers didn't actually take the time to learn how to remove a spindle from an actual spinning wheel but they took one out of a locked case that said DANGER?"

"That's it." Hildy said with a nod. "They waited until Mister…. I really can't pronounce his name."

"Rumplestiltskin but he uses Mister Gold now." Hela said. And what did she have that she could offer him to make up for the trouble Hildy's brothers had caused?

"They waited until Mister Gold was fixing his wife a cup of tea and then they grabbed the spindle, and they broke his nice case too."

"Where are your brothers? And where did they manage to lose a cursed spindle?" If someone injured themselves before she could find the thing and get it safely locked up again…. How strong was the sleeping curse? Strong enough to cover an entire palace, she knew, but could it somehow extend further? If it could cover a city and the spindle was in Asgard...

"They dropped it over the Bifrost. They think it's somewhere in Midgard." Hildy said. "And they got bored when it didn't break anything when it fell. They're trying to climb the fence and get into Idunn's garden to raid her apple tree."

"They dropped a cursed spindle that causes a hundred years of sleep onto Midgard?" After all of the troubles Asgardians had caused for that poor planet, did they really need to add a cursed spindle to the mix?

"A spindle? Is that what it was?" Heimdell said as he came stalking up. "Where are they?"

"Idunn's garden, hopefully snacking on her apples and reducing themselves to babyhood for a few months." Hela said. "Heimdell, did you happen to see where the spindle landed?"

He nodded. "I was wanting to make sure they didn't break any more windows, or almost hit skydivers in the head like they did when they threw those rocks." Dark elves, he would happily take a dozen invasions by the dark elves over one visit to his bridge by Lord Volstagg's three impish sons. "Wait, is that the spindle with…."

"With the sleeping curse on it. The boys seem to have borrowed it without permission. Tell me where it landed. I've got to get that thing back before someone ends up taking a very long nap behind a wall of very sharp thorns." And maybe with some luck she could get it back before poor Agent Coulson heard about it as well.

"Victoria?" Jasper knocked and then poked his head into Victoria's office. "Do you have a minute? I found the strangest thing outside, and I was wondering if you could have a clue what it might have fallen off of."

"What is it?" Victoria asked as she looked up from the long list she was putting together of paperwork and reports that John was very late on submitting. It was fast reaching the length of her list of the sins of Coulson's team, and she suspected if things went on much longer she was going to get carpal tunnel.

"It's weird. It almost looks like the spindle from a spinning wheel but I don't know why one of those things would be around here." Jasper said as she held the object out to Victoria. "Have the scientists been messing around with anything new, because I can't figure out what it could have came off of so I can return it."

Victoria reached out and then jerked her hand back, a bright red drop of blood beading on her finger. "You don't hand something sharp to someone with the pointy end first!" As she spoke, she suddenly found herself feeling incredibly tired, her eyelids heavy. So sleepy all of a sudden. Sleepy, and she had just pricked her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel? Why did that sound familiar? But before she could think more, her eyes had slipped shut and she tumbled out of her chair, slipping into a deep sleep before she hit the floor.

"Victoria?" Jasper dropped the spindle and reached for his communicator to call for help, but suddenly he was very tired as well, and seconds later he was on the floor, snoozing away as outside thorns sprouted all around the building, wrapping it in a thick wall as throughout the Hub agents everywhere dropped off, joining their leader in sleep.