THE OCEAN BLUE
TONIGHT, OLIVIA FINDS HERSELF AWAKENING ON A BOAT. She’s already sitting upright, leaning against the side of the boat. To her surprise, Loki isn’t up quite yet.
She takes the opportunity to check out her surroundings; it’s the wide blue sea, but there’s a small island in view. It should only be a mile out, tops.
The boat, on the other hand, looks like a fairly standard fisherman’s rowboat. That is, aside from the strange masthead and markings carved everywhere. She thinks it might be a language of some sort, but not one she’s ever seen before.
“They’re Asgardian runes,” Loki’s voice informs her as her fingertips trace one. She turns to see him finally up, looking out at the island. “Row us to the island.”
Olivia’s eyebrows raise, and she crosses her arms.
“By my count, there are four paddles,” she states, stubbornly. “Either we both row or neither of us does.” He turns to look at her, visibly offended.
“I am a god; I will not lower myself to paddling like some common servant,” he refuses. She nods, leaning back against the side of the boat.
“Guess we’ll be staying right here then,” she claims, turning her gaze up at the clouds. She tolerated his little ‘feeble mortal mind’ comment last night, but she isn’t about to let him order her around.
“You insolent mortal,” he hisses angrily. “How dare you—,” he starts, only to be cut off by Olivia.
“Okay, you know what?” she sighs, sitting up straight so she can level him with a look. “Time to have a talk. First of all? My name is not ‘mortal’, and I won’t be responding to that anymore.” His mouth opens in surprise, his expression suddenly a bit taken aback.
She continues without giving him a moment to speak.
“Second of all, I dare because I have a mind of my own. I’m not one of your little lackeys for you to order around,” she states firmly. “Third of all, may I remind you that this whole thing is happening because we’re soulmates. Even if you don’t believe in fate, that means you’re stuck with me on equal footing for the next week.”
Olivia gestures to the world around them with a small flourish of her wrist.
“This is not the real world. You’re not a god here. You’re just you, and I’m just me,” she reminds him, “so I think it’s fair to say that this whole thing would go a lot easier if you would stop pretending otherwise.”
With that, she slumps back to lean against the side of the boat again, crossing her arms and shutting her eyes.
Loki stands there for a moment, thoroughly rebuked. Looking at Olivia right now, she honestly doesn’t look any different from an Asgardian; but that’s not really better.
He opens his mouth to say something rude, but stops short when a shadow comes over himself and Olivia. Her eyes snap open, and they both stand to look.
From the sea has risen the humongous figure of Odin, just one of his hands big enough to crush their entire boat.
“Wherever you go,” he thunders, his voice loud enough to hurt the soulmates’ ears, “there is war,” he raises his hand from under the water, “ruin,” he lifts it over his head, “and death!” He starts to swing his hand downward. Seeing his intent immediately, Olivia thinks fast, panicking. She snatches the rope from the floor of the boat, tossing it to loop around the paralyzed Loki.
“Move!” she shouts, diving off the boat and pulling her soulmate with her. They barely make it off in time to avoid Odin’s hand, which slams into the boat and smashes it to pieces.
Olivia and Loki are swept away by the ginormous wave Odin’s hand created, and they struggle to reach the surface of the water.
The wave brings them crashing down onto the beach of the island from before. The receding wave nearly pulls them back out to sea again, but Olivia thinks fast and grabs onto a rock that’s lodged deeply into the sand.
She also holds tightly to the rope from earlier, and Loki on the other end does the same so as not to be swept away.
Then the force of the wave is gone, and the two soulmates are left soaking wet and gasping for air on the shore of an unfamiliar island.
***
When Olivia finally manages to catch her breath, she pulls herself weakly to her feet with a groan.
“Why the hell do I feel so many things?” she groans. “I thought this was supposed to be a fucking dream! I didn’t get thirsty last night!” Loki groans too, pulling his forearm up to shield his eyes from the sun. He takes a breather, and then pushes himself to a stand.
“Why… why did you do that?” he inquires as he untangles himself from the rope. She looks at him in tired confusion.
“What?” she wonders in slight annoyance, leaning down to rest her hands on her knees. She really doesn’t need him interrogating her after she was the one who did all the work saving them.
“You pulled me off the boat,” he accuses her. “Why would you do that?” She sighs deeply, hanging her head. Then, she straightens to her full height.
“Would you have preferred I let him kill you?” she inquires. “I don’t know if he could have, but I’m sure it wouldn’t exactly have been fun, either way.” He narrows his eyes at her.
“If you think your petty attempts at heroism will earn you my favor, you are mistaken,” he snaps. She rolls her eyes at him, turning away.
“Yeah, it’s not heroism,” she replies flatly. “I’m gonna go check out the island. I’m heading around the beach, and if you feel inclined to help, then do me a favor and check inland.”
Without waiting for a response, Olivia starts down the beach, wringing out her hair and hoping to find somewhere private to dry out her clothes.
This is by far the worst dream she’s ever been a part of.