He sat there unmoved. Dirt and mud caked under his nails. Dried blood on his cloth and face. Jaw bruising and shoulder dislocated. His eyes couldn't blink properly. It was swollen and it was dark purple.
"This is a foolish act. I knew it." He muttered under his breath.
He regretted his action on following Thor to embark his so call journey. Thor insisted on going to Alfheim, searching for some beasts to be slay. And they ended up being tricked by the elves who knew their intention on coming to their realm.
The beasts that Thor wanted to slay actually a herd of trolls. A creature that better left unprovoked. The elves already tried so hard not to disturb any of those ugly trolls, for the trolls known for destruction.
" Make haste brother! It just a few yards away from here!"
Loki just frowned and eyes darted here and there. " I have a bad feeling about this Thor. Let us go home."
Volstagg barked out a laugh. While Fandral and Sif snorted. Hogun as the usual, looking uninterested.
"Don't tell me that you already pissed your pants Loki." Jabbed Fandral.
His frown deepened. Not liking even the slightest Fandral's joke.
"It is not the matter whether I already pissed my pants or not Fandral. I feels presences since we set foot into this realm." And it's not a good sign.
"So you not denying that you wet your pants?"
Struck!
Lightning.
Thor!
The group broke out into a run when they heard thunder booming at the east of the wood. Hideous shrieking sounded. It seemed that Thor had sneaked from them when they were busy taunting Loki.
The sight was not pretty. Trolls came to them with ball of poisonous mud in hands. Bubbly and smelt like orc's feces.
"Thor! Stop it!" Loki yelled. Hoping that Thor will heed his call.
Unfortunately, a ball of mud landed on Thor's arm. Burning his skin. He hissed in pain before he went on a killing spree. Thus provoking the trolls and sending the warrior three and Sif into a massive and amazing fight.
They were smiling and laughing as they killed the trolls. Loki went rigid. Shiver ran down his body. The presences he felt earlier were getting closer. And they have massive energy reserved resided in them.
The elves!
Loki knew the elves rules just like the back of his hands. And one of the most grievous rule not to be broke is,
Never go into the trolls territory.
"And here I am, chained to the (rhythm XD) floor." He huffed as he tried to wipe the blood that ran down his nose.
Suddenly a clinking of metal sounded from a far. His eyes widened for a friction before they returned to normal. His mind started guessing.
'Is it another prisoner coming?'
The sound of the clinking chains and footsteps were louder than before. Signaling him that they were closer to his cell. He waited in anticipation, eager to see who was going to be with him in that accursed place.
The footsteps he heard saying that there were three people in total. He assumed that two guards and one prisoner.
But he didn't thought that he will see this as a prisoner.
It was just a mere child.
A girl in a ragged cloth. Eyes dulled and empty. Void of any emotions to be trace. He wondered what the girl's had done to be in such a state.
One of the guards slammed the gate open and pushed the girl in harshly. The girl stumbled and fell to the ground with a loud thud. The guards just snorted before he locked the cell again. Leaving the two of them in the cold, rotten place.
The girl, he noticed, doesn't even flinched when she was pushed to the ground. But instead she just let it be and acted like nothing happened to her. With a shaky bony hands, she lifted herself up from the hard ground.
"What are you doing here child?" He asked.
The girl turned and looked at him dead in the eye. "Locked up."
"I know that." He was silently sighed. "I mean what did you to be in here?"
"For being born." Her answer sending a sharp pain in his chest. His heart throbbed.
He remember when he found out that he was a Jotun. The pain that a truth inflicted on him. A bitter truth. Sometimes he wondered why he was borns in the first place. And he went on rampage for that and tried to conquered a realm before he was back into the light.
"And why was that?"
He saw how the girl's eyes darkened. Her (E/C) eyes was unusual. Her pupils were ringed with red. And her ears was not as pointed as the elves should be. A half breed then.
"Shouldn't you be with your kind now?" He prodded a bit.
"I'm sure you already know the answer Jotun. And I think you're prodding too much for my liking." That's all she said before she walked to the dark corner, dragging the now metal ball chained to her left leg. She then sat at the corner with her back facing him.
He took in the girl's form. Her small frail body was framed with what he identified was rag. Her long shaggy hair were caked with dirt and dried blood. He noticed that her skin were paler than the other elves and even more paler than he is. He wondered has she ever been outside. He could clearly see her spine peeking through the rag.
"Has they not feed you little one?" And she just shrugged.
Well then. "How long have you been in here?" He thought the girl would not answer him but surprisingly she did.
"Since I could remember." There was an edge in her voice that warned him not to say anything.
"Ah." Honestly, he wasn't satisfied with her blunt answer.
"What's your name?" She abruptly turned to face him. He swore that her eyes flashed red before it faded.
"I don't know. I don't have one." This time she doesn't turned around and gave him her back. Instead she just stared at him like a vulture do to it's prey. It's unnerving.
"Better stop the blood of yours from leaving your body. " she said.
I warily wiped away all of the blood from my face. There was something about that girl that was unsettling. But he couldn't put his finger on what is it.
"(Y/N)"
"What?" He was startled by her sudden voice.
"My name. Or what I love to call myself."
"Loki of-" She just snorted.
"Oh save my your introduction, I knew who you are. Even from down here I could know what transpired above." A wicked smile adorned her face.
Loki rubbed his chained wrist in nervousness. He felt like a kitten trapped with a hungry lion.
"Here, let me help you." The girl, now name as (Y/N) moved from her spot and walked over to Loki. Her eyes no longer empty but now filled with empathy. Empathy for him. But why? Just why would she felt sorry for him? An ex-intergalactic criminal that deserved to be severed his head for what he had done.
"Why are you doing? I am no need for your help." He spatted.
(Y/N) just looked at him unamused. But there was a glint in her (E/C) eyes.
"I know full well that you are 'capable' on freeing yourself if you have your strength but I know that your magic is locked away by that wretched cuffs."
Her words surely does not fit her. How could a mere child like her spoke like an adult. Maybe she learnt the way the guards spoke.
She knelt before him, slowly reaching out to touch his cuff. "Hold on." And she yanked the chain apart. He looked at her eyes wide, doesn't believe what he just saw.
"How...how..." He wondered out loud.
"As you already know, I'm a half breed. Something that everyone ashamed and afraid of. Even my mother." She muttered lowly.
"The chained that bind you are enchanted with magic to suppress your own. Luckily for me I mine does not."
He raised his eyebrow and rubbed his wrist. "I know. But if yours does not suppress your magic, why didn't you just teleported out of this rotting place?"
He gave him a small sad smile. "It is not that simple Prince Loki, this chains," she raised up her hands to indicate what she was about to said.
"Are forged from Mithril. As far as I like to break it, it's not an easy task to be done. Let alone by a girl that are underfed for years. Also, who can teach me seird? Those rats?"
"Maybe...Maybe I could help you." He said a little bit hesitated.
"But how?" There was something in her tone that made his heart clenched.
"I long to see the stars, to see the blazing sun, to feel the wind...to feel alive..." She turned her head away, a far away look in her eyes. "And I wish to know what all of those things are."
"But why did you help me?"
She just chuckled dryly. "For your own safety."
"What?" He does not understand what this girl implying.
"It's been too long. I need to be sate..." She growled.
Suddenly she slumped down on the wall, panting like she had just ran a mile. Her face reddened and beads of sweats rolled down her forehead. She pulled her knees closed to her chest and cried.
"I wanna go outside..." her voice was low and childish. The edge he heard earlier now gone.
He realised that he girl in front of him were no more than a child. An unwanted child that being confined in this horrid place in her whole life. He hated his childhool. He hated how no one paid any attention to him. Ha hated how Thor seemed to be the only one who received all the praised, all the glory but not him. He hated how Odin never labelled him as his son but just a mere trinket from the battlefield.
But looking at the girl in front of him, his suffering were just a small friction of hers. She knew from the beginning that she is unwanted, she knew that she will recieve no love. She knew no one would be there for her when the time is hard, when everyone turned against her. She does not have the comfort of a mother that he easily recieve from Frigga.
Her little body trembled. And he knew that she was crying. Slowly he leaned against the wall and pushed himself up, without injuring his already dislocated shoulder. He limped towards tha child and knelt before her. He did something that he never thought he would do.
He hugged her. The girl stiffened in his arms.
"W-what are yo doing?" She said meekly.
"I'm hugging you." He drew her tighter. Just like how Frigga did to ease him after his continuous nightmares.
"Hug?" She asked, did not understand the word.
"Yes. This is hug. It's a gesture that meant to brought someone comfort. A simbol of love." He spoke slowly.
"L-llove?" Tears brimmed her eyes when she uttered the words.
Love is something that she longed for. Love.
Love.
And she cried.
She curled her small fist into his tunic and clung to him tighter. For the first time in her life, someone her kidness.
"Thank you..."
~*~
He spent the night talking to the girl. He found out that the girl actually one of the brightest child he ever made. The way her eyes glinted when he told her stories, the way her cheeks flushed when he showed her his magic.
"Can...can you teach me seird?"
He gladly did. He taught her a simple spell. Light magic.
It took her a few good hours to master it. It was impressive.
Her eyes shone with muc giddiness and fascinations when she managed to pull the simple trick. Her ball of light was small (F/C).
"Why did you choose to learn that spell?" He asked.
"Because it ligt my dark life. Like you did."
It touched his heart.
~*~
"Loki! Brother! Wake up!" He was woken up by Thor's whispers.
The warrior three glanced wildly and guarding the entrance in case there was any guard coming in their direction. Thir furious unlocking the cell to free Loki out of his confinement.
"Thor?"
Thor face filled with worry an corcern. What had those creatures done to his brother?!
He gave Loki a bone crushing hug before pulling away.
"Come now brother! Hurry!"
"Wait Thor..."
The space beside him was empty. No warmth. He cuddled with (Y/N) last night but now she's not there anymore. Panic and fear struck him like a lightning rod.
"( Y/N)? " he called out hoping that she will answer. But to his demise, only his voice echoed back to him.
Thor and his friends looked at him like he was losing his mind.
"LOKI!"
"J-just go ahead Thor! I'll catch up with you later. There is something I need to do!"
He ran throught various of hallways searching for (Y/N). His run came to a halt when he heard a familiar voice calling for help.
It was (Y/N).
Three elves crowded her. One pinned her to the wall and one pointed his sword at her throat. While one teared her cloth.
The soght alone made him mad.
"(Y/N)!" He screamed.
As if she was knocked out of stupor, she release a blinding light and the guards instantly shied away from her. She took the opportunity to ran towards Loki.
"Loki!" She cried.
He hugged the girl before he carried her on his back. He was in no state to fight and his magic reserves was to low so he choosed to run.
(Y/N) wrapped her small arms around his nec and buried her head in the crook of his neck.
"L-loki...I-I'm scares." She stuttered out.
"Don't worry (Y/N). I'm going to keep my promise to you." And she said nothing more. He knew that the girl had trusted him unconditionally.
And he intented to keep his promise to her.
Her small had suddenly pulled his right arm and opened his palm before putting something an wrapped his palm around the small thing.
"Don't lose it Loki. It's a present from me." He nodded and continued running.
The guards were getting closer and closer. And so does the exit. Hope flared in his heart. Maybe, maybe ha can finally freed the girl. And show her what the worlds is.
But his hope crushed like a dried leaf under a boot.
(Y/N)'s scream rang loud in his ears and she was pulled by the leg, releasing her weak grasp on Loki.
Loki turned around to save the girl from the clutch of their captors but he was greet with red.
Red.
The beautiful coloured liquid splashed over his face and body. Some of them fell onto his boots. Staining the ground into dark colour.
He was greeted with a sight that he wished not to see from her.
He saw how she was in the mid-air, how the guard raise his sword above his head before he struck down the sword into the ground.
Through (Y/N).
The strong force brought down (Y/N) along the sword and loud thump sounded when her small body hit the ground. Her eyes wide and scared. Blood flew into the air.
He felt so hopeless.
Like the ground had just collapsed under his feet.
"(Y/N)!!!"
And he was gone.
Hands outstretched forward. Face full of shock and disbelief. He was back in Asgard. In the observatory. Heimdall as the usual sported a blank face while his brother and mother launched themselves to him. Her mother hugged him and smoothed down his hair. Checking him for any injuries.
"Brother? Brother?!"
"Wha...what?" Tears spilled.
He cried.
And he didn't rememer when is the last time he cried. He opened up his palm and stared at the small round thing.
It was a ring produced from light. It was (Y/N)'s light.
His mother does not understand why he cried. He begged for Heimdall to send him back but Heimdall's respond stunned him.
"She is gone my prince. She wished for you to live."
And he knew that the gatekeeper does not lie. For he saw it with his own eyes.
"Live Loki. Live for me and thank you for everything. " She flashed him one last smile before the life in her faded.
'I broke my promise to you...I broke another promise...forgive me...'
"Is...is that how stars look like Loki?" She said wih full of fascination in her voice.
She stared into the illusions of stars Loki made.
Loki just chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"No. Not even close. The stars are much more magnificent from this illusions. The stars in Asgard are the prettiest of them all. "
"Really?" Her eyes full of hope.
"Really. And when we manage to get out of here, I will show you the stars of Asgard. I promise you."