Fire and Ice

Finally, warmth. The crackle of fire filled your ears as your body soaked in as much of its warmth as possible. Wait! Fire! You startled awake, shooting up to a sitting position eyes quickly scanning your surroundings only to find you were no longer in the field. Dark stone walls surrounded you and just to your right burned a small wood fire. Just a normal fire. You could feel the tension start to leave your body as you scanned the rest of the area. The fire sat near the middle of a small cave, and you were positioned towards the back, feet nearly touching the wall. The entrance was about 10 meters away from you, it was rather small and was well hidden by some tree branches. From the little light that filtered through you could tell it was no longer night. Wait, how did I get here? You began to retrace your steps. I traveled through a portal to Midgard. I was following a star to find Loki. Then there was a girl, and a man. I ran... 

“Я думал ты мог умереть.” 

A young girl's voice echoed through the cave. Your eyes darted from the entrance attempting to find the source, finally falling on a small figure on the other side of the flames. Her face was obstructed but you recognized her as the girl from before. Her eyes locked with yours but didn’t say another word. A few moments passed and you decided to break the silence. 

“Did you bring me here?” 

You motioned to her, then yourself, and finally to the surrounding cave, hoping to somehow make sense. The girl took a moment before slowly nodding. Well, that answers one question.  

“Thank you.” 

Again, the girl nodded.  

“What happened to the man?” 

No reaction. 

“Where did you find me?” 

Nothing. Note to self, learn this language. Silence fell over the cave as you both sat watching the sparks dance in the air. The girl, the man, we ran... You kept running over the thoughts in your head, confused as to why you couldn’t remember anything past that. As you battled with your memory, a rogue spark flicked out from a piece of wood towards the girl, she let out a little scream, dodging out of the way at the last second. The scream echoed through your head, clearing away the fog in your memory. The events of last night returned with stunning clarity, and it was at that moment you realized why you had decided to forget them.  

Your mind was flooded with images of the man, completely engulfed in flames. For a moment he was still as if his body could not process what was happening. Then the screaming began as he flailed about, in an attempt to escape the flames. At this point, you had stopped emitting fire, but there was no escape for him. You watched as he fell to the snow, in a desperate attempt to put out the flames, which may have worked for an ordinary fire but not yours. The flames dwindled but refused to die. His movement began to slow, the screams becoming distorted before eventually fading, as his twitching stopped. The field fell into silence as your flames finally died out. You remained frozen in the snow, by pain or by fear you were unsure. And that’s when the smell hit you, the one that haunted your nightmares. You covered your nose too late, the stink from the burning body already reaching your stomach. You quickly turned to the side, before whatever was left of your last meal landed in the snow. You couldn’t stay there, you had to move, to get away. There were numerous sharp pains as you forced your body to rise, your eyes focusing on the treeline ahead of you, but everything was hazy. You remember walking, pain, the feel of tree bark before everything went black. You tried to focus, to bring clarity to the last part, but you were bombarded by the images of the man burning, his screams, and the smell. You were trapped in what seemed like an endless cycle, forced to relive the moment over and over. But just as you feared the memory would never end, it cut out mid-scream.  

A weird tingling pain radiated from your shoulder as your mind refocused on the present. Your gaze locked on the girl who was slowly crawling backward, her eyes locked on the entrance of the cave. You tried to turn but your body refused. The tingling now spreading throughout your entire body. What the hell?! The girl was now backed completely against the cave wall, she turned to you, a sheer look of terror on her face. Move damn it. Your fingers began to twitch as the tingling began to fade, leaving more of a throbbing pain in your shoulder. 

“- Хорошо - со мной.” 

The sound was muffled, but the voice you heard was female. They found us. A woman, roughly your size with reddish hair entered your vision, slowly making her way towards the girl. She kept her eyes locked on the girl, but you couldn’t help but feel you were being watched as well. Come on, move. Another finger twitch. Move. Your foot shifted. Move! Your body launched forward through the flames. The fire must have obstructed her vision as she made no movement to dodge your attack. You collided with her ribcage, using the momentum of your jump to push her against the wall. She hit the wall hard, but kept her footing. The same could not be said for you, after pushing her, your body kept falling forward. You barely got your hands down in time to stop yourself from face-planting the cave floor. You quickly pushed off the floor, but your body still wasn’t responding properly, and you fell back on your butt. Shit. Your eyes shot up only to see that the woman was already eyeing you with a raised eyebrow. Her gaze shifted, to where you were a second ago, to your shoulder, and then to something on her wrist. You took that moment to shift your weight slightly to place yourself between her and the girl. She must have caught your movement as she quickly pointed her arm at you. 

“Я не позволю тебе причинить вред этой девушке.” 

Knives. KNIVES! Your hand quickly moved to your boot, hoping that you had picked up your knives after your last fight. Unfortunately, you were too slow, before your hand even passed your knee another tingling pain began to spread from your chest. Shit. The woman kept her eyes on you, arm raised, wrist now illuminated in blue light. So, it’s some sort of weapon.  

“Сделайте еще один ход, и вы не выйдете из пещеры живым.” 

From her tone, you gathered she was saying some sort of threat, but you elected to ignore it. The tingling had begun to fade, another few seconds and you would be able to move enough to toss one of your knives. You kept your eyes locked on hers as if daring her to make the first move. You felt the tiniest twitch in your toes. Finally. This time you were faster, your hand quickly falling to your boot and finding a knife. Thank the gods. The women flinched but quickly lined up another shot. You fell to the side, dodging the attack before launching the knife in her direction. To your amazement, she managed to dodge as well, dropping to the floor at the last second. The knife hit the cave wall, ricocheting to the floor near the cave entrance. You made the mistake of following the path of the knife for a moment, not catching the movement of the woman until it was too late. In an instant she had moved behind you, her legs wrapping around your torso pinning you against her before her arm encircled your neck. You felt the panic rise as each breath you took, no air reached your lungs. Your hand fumbled for your other knife, but the woman's legs kept it just out of reach. Shit. You twisted in her grip, hands clawing at her arm but nothing released the pressure from your neck. Strangulation wouldn’t kill you, a fact you learned the hard way, but it would knock you out for a few hours. She would be long gone with the girl by then. You had no options. Stars had begun to enter your vision as you brought both hands up, clasping the woman’s arm. 

“I...won’t....let …...you........hurt..........her.” 

The words barely exited your lips but they solidified your resolve. You felt the power build throughout your body. One quick blast. That’s all I need. You focused on your hands, too much and the girl might get hurt, too little and the woman might not let go. You felt the power on your fingertips and took a breath before releasing your flames. Wait! You paused, the power still itching to be released from your hands. You took another breath. I can breathe! The woman’s hold remained on you but her arm had released just enough for you to take small breaths.  

“What did you say?” 

It took a moment for you to register that you understood what she said.  

“I-I won’t let you hurt her.” 

Your voice sounded almost timid. Her question threw you, not only was she speaking a language you understood, but she had stopped actively trying to kill you. 

“I’m not here to hurt her. I’m here to save her.” 

“What?” 

There was a moment of silence. It finally dawned on you that this woman might not be with the man that was chasing the girl. 

“Did S.H.I.E.L.D send you?” 

S.H.I.E.L.D? The man mentioned something about them before, he didn’t seem happy with them.

“No.”

The woman’s grip tightened slightly, but you could still breathe.

“Then why are you here? Who sent you?”

“No one. I was just walking through the field when I saw her running. I had to help her.”

“So you just happened to be wandering through a barren field in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a cloak?”

You’re one to talk. You weren’t one to judge but from what you could tell she was just wearing a skin-tight black suit. At least you had your powers to keep you warm. How is she not frozen?

“I’ll ask one more time, what are you doing here?”

The woman tightened her grip slightly, allowing only the smallest bit of air to enter your lungs. The panic began to rise again, your mind went blank, words leaving your mouth without you even realizing.

“I’m looking for someone dear to me. I was told they might be here and nothing, especially the cold, is going to stop me from finding them.”

There was another moment of silence before you felt a slight shift in position. 

“Я со щитом. Извините, если я вас напугал. Я думал, что она плохой парень. но она говорит, что спасла тебя. Это правильно?” 

The woman switched back to the language you didn’t understand, but her voice was much calmer, softer. She’s talking to the girl. You waited for a response, but nothing came. Instead, you felt the woman release her grip on you. You quickly scrambled away, pulling your knife before turning to the woman.  

“I think there has been a misunderstanding.” 

The woman had her hands raised to the side and spoke in a friendly manner, but there was still a fierceness in her eyes. You quickly glanced to the girl who seemed much calmer. The panic began to fade, so you lowered your knife but kept it in hand. The woman took that as a cue and continued. 

“This girl is from a village east of here. It was ransacked by a gang run by Vladimir Ranskahov, who kidnaps girls for human trafficking. I was dispatched by S.H.I.E.L.D to intercept them but they had already made off with a number of girls. She was one of them.” 

There were many things you didn’t quite understand from that sentence, but you got the gist of the situation. Some gang attacked a town, took girls, and you managed to save one that had escaped. You felt the tiniest bit of unease creep into your stomach, but you ignored it. 

“So we both thought the other was trying to hurt her.” 

You looked to the girl who seemed completely unaware of what you were talking about. 

“It appears so.”

Your gaze drifted back to the woman, who you realized was surveying you.

“To be honest I don’t believe your story. But you helped save the girl so I’m going to let you go.”

Let me go? What did she mean by that? Was she going to try to capture you or something?

“I will bring the girl somewhere safe, you are free to continue your search.”

Your body was itching to escape, to continue your search, but something didn’t seem right.

 “You aren’t taking her to her village?” 

There was a brief flicker of what seemed like sadness in her eyes, but it was gone in an instant. 

“There is nothing left to go back to.” 

The realization hit you all at once and you finally understood why you felt so uneasy. The kidnapping, the destruction of homes, the terror. Dionysus. He would do the same thing, raid villages, destroy homes, just for his own benefit. The unease was quickly replaced by anger, any sympathy you had for the man you burned was gone, in fact, you almost wished you could go back and make him suffer more. The woman seemed to sense your hesitation.

“There is a rehoming facility S.H.I.E.L.D has set up. I will take her there. I can assure you she will be safe.” 

At this point, you did not doubt this woman was going to help the girl, but your mind wandered elsewhere.

“What about the other girls?” 

The woman rose her eyebrow. 

“You said they took off with more girls. Where did they go?” 

“Most likely a hideout. They have a few set up in the area, they hold the girls there until it's safe to move them. “ 

“Do you know where the hideouts are?” 

The woman paused as if trying to understand where this conversation was going before it seemed to click. 

“These hideouts are heavily fortified, one person can’t break in, if that is what you are asking. You saved one girl, take that win and move on.” 

She had a point, you were out of your depth here, you didn’t know this realm, or the mortals that lived here, but you couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, not when you knew exactly how those girls were feeling right now. 

“You said they sent you to save the girls, you must be planning some sort of rescue.” 

“If and when we have the information needed for a successful rescue I can assure you we will do our best to save the other girls.”

Do your best? What does that mean? There was no way you were letting this gang get away with this, nor were you going to let this woman tell you what you could or couldn’t do. Your intentions must have been written on your face, cause in the quickest of motions the woman’s arm raised towards you. Your eyes caught the blue flash before you felt the tingling pain. This time it spread from not only your chest but your right arm and left leg as well. Damn it! You fell to the side, unable to keep your footing. Your vision was hazy but you could make out the shadows of the woman dashing towards the cave entrance, the girl following close behind. You aren’t getting away that easily!