Beauty and the Beast

The afternoon light was warm and golden but the chill in the breeze reminded all that winter was not far around the corner. The cold didn’t bother the seventeen year old boy who had snuck up into the hay loft of his family’s barn to delight in his most precious treasure… a book. His mother had taught him how to read when he was little and Loki had taken to it like a duck to water… much to his father’s displeasure. He frequented the local bookstore so much that everyone jokingly said that it was his second home.

Loki’s long fingers flip through the slightly worn pages with great ease as his sharp, green eyes swiftly devour the story unfolding within. It is a tale he has read a dozen times already and is eager to read a dozen times more! It is filled with adventure, daring deeds, dastardly plots, and romance!

Loki sighs as he reads over the part where the young heroine of the tale, a Merchant’s daughter named Jane, has a fateful meeting in the market square with a dashing, golden haired man calling himself Donald. This man though is really the crowned prince, Blake, in disguise! But our clueless Jane won’t find out that secret until chapter three! Loki smiles as he finds the paragraph where the prince’s secret is revealed… and they kiss!

The raven haired teen then hugs the book to his chest and lets his head fall back so he can look out the open loft door to watch the sun sink lower towards the forested horizon.

“Loki! Loki! Where are you at, you confounded boy?!” Comes the gruff, scratchy voice of his elderly father snapping him from his daydream. Loki hastily shoves his precious book under the loose hay.

“I’m in the barn!” Loki shouts as he peeks his head out the open loft door. He watches his stout father come stomping over to the barn from their cottage as he shuts those doors.

“Have you fed the goats?” His father calls up.

“Yes!” Loki lies as he hastily uses the pitch fork up in the loft to throw some of the hay down for the goats. “I’m finishing up feeding them now!” Loki then calls and hurries down the wooden latter inside the barn. As soon as his feet hit the dirt floor, he grabs two handfuls of grain and scatters that into the chicken coup area. The clucking chickens are quick to peck up the little golden nibblets.

“Are there any eggs?” Loki’s father asks as he then enters the barn. A stern look is on his face.

“Let me check.” Loki says a bit breathlessly as he moves to the roost. He has designed a clever set up so that when the hens lay eggs, they drop out of the nest and roll gently down a shallow incline to a waiting basket. Loki opens the small compartment and finds the basket has six eggs.

“Wonderful.” Loki’s father says as he pushes Loki aside and takes up the eggs. “The windcrank for the pump is stuck… fix it… now.” Loki’s father then says sternly as he pockets the eggs in his jacket. “I want the fresh water to flow… not be stuck with stagnant filth like some common country bumpkin.”

“Yes, Father.” Loki says and lowers his eyes.

“And one more thing…” Loki’s father says as he turns around to fix his youngest son with a stern glare. “Keep your nose out of those worthless fairytale books. Nothing good ever comes out of reading all day other than idleness… besides, you’re a man grown… start acting like it.”

“It doesn’t make me idle.” Loki whispers under his breath.

“What was that?” Loki’s father says heatedly.

“I said, being a man is something I can handle, Father.” Loki says prominently with his chin raised in a somewhat defiant manner. His father eyes him with that glare a moment longer.

“Very well then. Finish up out here. I expect you back in the cottage to cook supper before dark settles in.” Loki’s father says and turns away. Loki watches the bitter old man make his way back to the cottage in the deepening twilight. The boy’s frown is a constant he can’t shake whenever he speaks with his father. Ever since his mother, Laufey, died ten years ago Loki has been treated more like an indentured servant than a son. Sometimes he imagines running away and seeing the greater world beyond… having adventures and living his life far from this place of constant scolding. His father, Farbauti, seems only interested in his youngest son’s clever intelligence at making mechanisms that ease the burdens of daily life.

“Father and Blindi won’t like going back to living like peasants if I was gone.” Loki says in a harsh whisper to himself as he makes certain the basket is placed just so in the egg collecting compartment. Loki then sighs as he closes the barn door once all the goats are inside happily munching on their sweet hay.

“Gods above… I wish for more than this provincial life.” Loki speaks out loud the yearning in his heart. “I long for adventure… for excitement… for romance in the great wide out there.” Loki says… whispering the last part to himself as he daydreams possible adventures. He gives a small sigh as he thinks of finding his own disguised prince out there… somewhere.

“Oh… Who am I kidding?” Loki then says blowing a fly away strand of raven hair from his face. “Whilst I long for a love like Jane and Blake’s…” He says as he walks around the barn making sure every door and window is shut and secured.

“I want nothing to do with girls.” Loki whispers to himself and the farm animals. “I’d much rather delight in having Prince Blake declare his love to me instead.” Loki whispers as he thinks of the tall, blonde, and most definitely handsome prince from his book… holding him… kissing him. “Or any man really.” Loki says with a small smile as his cheeks flush pink at the thought of the tall, handsome bookstore clerk named Steve Rogers. Loki washes his hands and splashes some water on his face from one of the rain collecting barrels by the barn then makes his way up to the cottage. Once inside, Loki fixes the windcrank’s chain (which was simple really) then starts preparing the vegetables for their supper. Once the large pot is on the stove, Helblindi, Loki’s older brother enters. He is taller than Loki’s 5’11 height by seven inches. He is also broader and more muscled. Helblindi is more classically handsome with a squared jaw and bright blue eyes. His long black hair is always pulled back and almost everyone in the nearby town just loves the oldest Frost brother. Almost all the men want to be him and all the women want to be bedded by him. Loki, however, can’t stand to be around him for more than a few moments at best.

“I’m back.” Helblindi says with a smile in his deep voice as he enters… tracking mud into the otherwise spotless cottage. Loki groans as their father stands to admire the animal skin and rather large antlers on his eldest son’s back.

“A fine elk you have caught, my boy.” Their father says with swelling pride as Helblindi puts the bulging skin on the table and opens it to reveal cuts of meat and some of the organs of the deer. The smell of blood quickly fills the cottage causing Loki’s nose to wrinkle in disgust.

“Will you please put that down in the meat locker, brother, so you can smoke it later.” Loki says trying to breathe through his mouth… but he starts to taste the metallic twang from the air as well which somehow is worse.

“You recently reached your seventeenth year, little brother. Man up! For one day you shall take up the family trade in hunting as I have.” Helblindi says with a grin… which quickly turns dark as he gives Loki a wicked look. “In fact… I have saved the best part for you.” Helblindi grabs the bloody heart from the assorted pile of flesh and viscera and holds it up towards his smaller brother. Loki blanches at the offered organ and goes paler than usual.

“Go on and eat it, brother.” Helblindi says through his wicked grin.

“No.” Loki says in reply and shakes his shaggy haired head. He starts backing up as Helblindi closes in slowly on him.

“Come now Loki… don’t be squeamish.” Their father says sternly as he cuts off Loki’s escape route around the table’s other side.

“I don’t want it.” Loki says heatedly as he is cornered by his brother and father in the kitchen.

“You don’t want it?” Helblindi says with an amused huff. Loki shakes his head in answer and Helblindi drops it down amid the pile of meat. “Fine… then I have something else for you.” Helblindi says with a chuckle as he picks up a long, dark pink sausage-looking bit.

“How about a stag’s cock then, little sister?” Helblindi says and Loki’s mouth gaps open at the offer… feeling hurt inside and scared that his big brother knows his darkest secret. Their father starts laughing so hard that he slaps his knee as he bends over. It devolves into a coughing fit which Helblindi snaps him out of with a strong slap to the back. Loki makes his way from the kitchen to the hall to hide his embarrassed flush and his growing anger.

“Come now, little brother… surely you can take a joke?” Helblindi then says as he sits a hunk of meat out and wraps up the rest to take down to the cellar.

“If he’d stop hanging around that Rogers boy who works at the bookstore then perhaps it would be a jest only.” Their father says in a more serious tone. Loki abruptly stops at his door, clenches his fists, and whirls around to face his verbally abusive family from down the short hallway.

“So what that I like books! They are far more interesting than you lot of rock-skulled idiots!” Loki snaps and storms into his room at the end of the hall. He would slam his door if the room had one. Instead he huffs and plops down on his bed to tearfully sulk with his back to the doorway… because men don’t cry.

“That stag’s cock’ll fetch gold at the Apothecary.” Loki hears his father’s gruff voice say.

“Aye, it will, Father. Maybe double at Alchemist Banner’s.” Helblindi then says.

“That windbag wouldn’t know what to do with it even if it was his own.” Their father jests with a snide chuckle. It’s a reference to the man’s sole interest in his ‘science’ and nothing else. Loki frowns angrily at that. Alchemist Banner is very wise for a man twice Loki’s own age… and twice as wise as any man his father’s age should be. He knows because he has spoken with Bruce as often as he can… has even looked up to the older man as a mentor and father figure.

“With his constant experimenting, who knows what he could get up to with it? Though here recently, I asked him if he’d be able to help lure in the biggest stags… and he said something about there being a way… with the provision of the right parts of course. I figured it was worth a try.” Helblindi explains.

“This will increase our catch… and with a full meat locker, we could spare some pieces for fox and sable traps.” Their father finishes with a satisfied hum. Then Loki hears him add, “You are certainly the cleverest of my sons, Blindi.” Loki can hear the pride, practically see its shining glory through his forcefully shut eyes.

“Tomorrow though… I want you to make preparations for your next hunting trip because it is high time that your little brother go out into the deep woods and start acting like the man he is supposed to be… not the simpering child your mother left us at her death.” Their father then says and Loki’s eyes snap wide open. This could be his chance to get away! But could he really go? With a map… maybe… but where to get one? Loki would have to ask Steve if there were any map books of the area in the bookstore. If not, maybe Alchemist Banner would have some of the deep woods and what lay beyond.

If there was somewhere better out there… then he’d take it and leave this overbearing existence behind! He would just have to slip away from his brother before he could celebrate his freedom. They say wishful thinking gets one no where… but when it is hope, it certainly does.

‘Here’s hoping for something better.’ Loki thinks as he shuts his eyes for a quiet moment before he has to back up and finish supper. All the while listening to his father and brother jest about Alchemist Banner. What got Loki through it all was the thought that tomorrow was a new day.