Across the Stars (Loki X Reader)

Walking towards Hell

The moonlight offered no real light to get packed. I grabbed the lamp that was on my side of the bed. The hardest thing to pack was my research. Most of it was journals but they held most of my memories, especially of the children. I had sampled many luxuries and tasted almost every type of food. I had been around the world but I was mostly happy here in Azerbaijan. I felt like I belonged and like my work actually meant something. I was safe, loved, and had everything I needed including a family of friends. It was a place that meant so much to me because of its rich history. I was lucky that my job encouraged research but most research was based on desperation and passion. I had explored my loving village and they allowed my curiosity to escape my control. I regretted to tell my host family that I would be leaving. They took it well and offered me tea to take before my departure.

I sat with the head of the family and his wife. They said many blessings for healing, protection, fertility and everything else they could think of. I was proud to have their blessings and their friendship. They had been my family for almost a year and we had many meals together. We were a family and it was breaking as my job pulled me away. I hugged the little ones and then thanked them one more time for their hospitality and kindness.

"Go with the gods of your people and I will pray that my Allah watches you as well."

"I pray my gods bless and protect your home and you as you walk this life"

We bowed our heads towards each other. The children hugging me before I walked out the door. The last good bye of many more to come.

As I walked down to the road, one of the squirrels that Frigg normally sent me found me. I smiled and picked him up. He had a little scroll and little book for me. Frigg normally shrunk the books to make it easier to carry down to Midgard. I feed him some of the yam chips that my host family had given me. I smiled and quickly transformed the book and letter into a readable size. The book was small and bound in worn red leather and the parchment note that came with it smelled of lavendar and lemon. The note read:

Dear (your name),

I am so sorry for the lack of lesson tonight and for being distracted. My sons weigh heavily on my mind and so do you. I am worried that were you are going will require more of your magic and combat skills than you know. The Fates always have their ways of warning and I feel it is my duty to warn you. You may feel angry and outrage, control it. Channel it into your healing like we have been practicing. I found this book here in my library. I am sure it was given to me by a Midgardian warrior lost to the body counts of history. I think it might be a good book for you to read on your way to your new mission. It is a book on the arts of war and fighting with magic. It requires a bit of skill but I am sure that as we work together we can perfect your technique. It is only a small collection but it has different styles that you can adapt to your armour and how many you are protecting. Most, almost all, require seidr or magic (k), but I am sure you will have no problem with that. Hopefully this will serve you well in your travels.~ Frigg

I pet the squrriel and smiled at the note about magic and remembered Frigg's distaste for the world. She had said it condemned and defiled seidr. Magic was palor tricks and shadow movements. Seidr on the other hand was channeling energy and the balance between all things to create things, protect things, or destroy them. I had been corrected so many times during lessons. I thanked the squirrel and handed him a dried fig for Frigg. He climbed the nearest tree and disappeared into the darkness. I stuffed the parchment into my bag and carried the book with me to the Jeep that was waiting for me. Throwing my bag into the back.

We made it to the tar mat safely, although I would never recommend having the Captian drive anyone anywhere. She was nice enough but she sped, cussed, yelled and flipped off random animals that crossed our path. There was hardly anyone awake but the animals seemed to get in her way no matter when she drove. It was amusing but we were almost late and if one thing I have learned in my time in, was you had to show up at least hours ahead of time to be considered on time.

There was no music, no discussion just the cool, foggy night air and darkness to care us through the night. It was a pretty long drive from the village to the airport, but we mostly slept or peppered each other with medical question or asked about the mission.

"All I know is the Avengers gave us a hell of a mess and its in central Europe. I think its in Czech but it could be Slovikia. So its going to be cold, depressing and full of pissed off people. Those poor bastards already suffered enough so don't start no bullshit arguments or fights. We are going to heal and save as many as possible."

"Do you think we will meet the Avengers? I really like Hawkeye and Thor. They look so delicious in those tight suits." Someone said it and I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"I think we will be a little preoccupied healing and they will be too busy celebrating their latest success to help us. They are egocentric."

"Remember your place. You are only on here cause you calm people down and heal. You are a pet project in worse shape than Captian America."

I rolled my eyes and my captian spoke up "(your pronoun) also speaks several languages and is a damn good field medic. Last time I counted your dead patient count was higher than the amount of officers you slept with."

The rest of the car ride was relatively quiet. We got to the tar mat and the world got a little more complicated when we reviewed our orders. Not only did we have injuries, no we had mass casualties that required a detailed color spectrum to classify patients. With a heavy sigh I sat on the C-170 and found my papachuete packed. I took it out and repacked it. After reviewing the paperwork the hum of the engines helped me to drift into a light sleep.

When I woke up it was bright and beautiful minus the scene below us. It was fire, brimstone, broken buildings and leveled ground. It looked like a decaying city from all the apocolypse films. I knew then that I should have believed my Captian and Frigg. This land and its people looked like hell and we were going to dive right into it. I slide my gear on and my bag, found the ledge and paracheauted into hell.