Edderkopp - Drider!Loki

Thirteen

It was still dark when we got up the next morning, the fading night not masking the fact that the downpour had lightened but the rain was still coming down in a softer, continuous sheet of drops.

By the time I had finished adjusting my clothes and freshening up behind the web, I could hear the other two talking between themselves, Loki sounding as sharp as ever and Thor sounding like he could use another ten hours of sleep.

I rounded the web wall as I clasped my bag again, hefting it onto one shoulder for security sake as I clambered back to the opening of the cave where a cold wind had invaded, sending a small shiver down my spine.

The cave was dark now that the fire had gone out and neither had lit a new one, most likely uses the adapted senses of their animal sides to navigate the space.

"Morning you two," I said with a smile, being somewhere between Loki's alertness and Thor's sluggishness.

"Good morning," Loki replied with a polite dip of his head.

Thor merely waved with one hand, covered his wide yawn with the other.

"Are we ready to go?" I asked, having to supress a laugh at the naga's bleary, slow blinking.

"Almost, I hope you don't mind, but I checked your clothes upon waking and folded them for you."

Loki nodded towards said pile of clothes, which he had kindly set upon one of the flat rocks away from any damp mist coming in from the rain.

"Oh, not at all, thank you."

I eased my way over to the rock and looked over the clothes, a smile quirking my lips at the presentation which turned out to be more of a bundled pile with evidence of attempts to fold here or there.

"I appreciate it," I said, shooting him my smile before unclasping my bag to set the clothes inside, checking them over for any damp spots as I went.

"You're welcome," he nodded, giving me a gentle look.

"Are we going to eat before we leave?"

"I don't need to," Thor replied, slouching against a nearby rock that reached his waist, "I ate last night and I don't need to eat often."

"As you know I don't," Loki commented as he walked towards the cave entrance, his figure becoming a silhouette until the quickly rising light just barely lit him up.

"Excellent, I'm not too hungry either, so that means we can leave."

"I believe so," Loki said, tucking his helmet into a sling that he had constructed from a ripped piece of cloth, one large enough that he could secure it over his shoulder and across his torso.

"Are you sure? Is your leg doing okay?"

Loki looked down and started to flex the second leg on his right side, bending it back and forth to test the waters as Thor and I watched.

A strange feeling washed over me from nowhere, running down my spine and making my very being tingle peculiarly.

There was something about the lighting that gave his usually pale skin a light grey sheen to it, from this vantage point I could see the tip of a pointed ear peeking out from among his black hair and I froze for just a moment in confusion.

Had I missed those features before?

Surely not, how do you completely gloss over the features of a dark elf?

Though it did line up with one of the many origin tales of the drider's kind, but I could have sworn that just yesterday he was as pale as a man who had never taken in the sun's rays and his ears definitely didn't protrude.

Surely it was the mixture of the lighting and my tiredness playing tricks on my eyes.

"I'm not sure," he finally said, looking towards me with irisless eyes that seemed to be glowing pure green and a one-sided smirk, his voice pulling me out of my reverie, "why don't you come over and help me find out."

"Right," I scoffed, my lips quirking into a smile despite the mixture of feelings swirling in my stomach as I stared into his hypnotic eyes, "said the spider to the fly."

"Well, more the drider to the human determined to help them for some peculiar reason but effectively."

Loki chuckled and continued to scuttle out of the mouth of the cave with ease, not even a hint of a limp hindering him.

I watched as he passed from the dim light just within the entrance to the growing light outside and noticed that all the dark elf features faded away, as clear as day was to night.

"Someone is in a good mood today."

I flinched and turned to Thor, who had moved to my left and was smiling groggily down at me.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a soft frown, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"No, no it wasn't you," I replied with a shake of my head, "I'm just tired."

"I know how you feel," he smiled wryly.

He reached over and plucked his satchel from the wall, slipping it on before plucking something from behind a set of stones beneath where his had been held.

As he tilted it in his hands, the silver of a winged helmet caught a glint of light that seemed to come from nowhere, like a magical beacon intended to glint on the helmet and the helmet alone come rain or shine.

"Where did you find that?" I asked, moving closer to get a better look.

Thor looked down at me with a grin wide enough to show his intimidating fangs.

"Funnily enough it was only a couple of trees from the entrance of this very cave."

"Huh, almost like you were meant to find it."

"Yes," he hummed, tucking the helmet into the bag which was suspiciously still compared to last night, "perhaps so."

"Are you two coming or not?" Loki called back, his voice echoing against the walls.

I glanced up at Thor who rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Forever the pushy one."

Letting out a small hum, I nodded and looked towards the mouth, bouncing my leg as I considered my options before finally settling on a decision to put the question out there.

"Thor, did you notice anything kind of...strange about Loki just now?"

"Of course, he's Loki, he has always been rather strange," he chuckled, patting my shoulder with a clawed hand before slithering past me, not giving me a chance to dig deeper.

Chewing on my lip, I watched Thor leave the cave, paying close attention to any changes within his appearance.

Once he was out of sight and there were no changes to be noted, I let out a long sigh and shook my head.

"It must have been your imagination, don't dwell upon it."

Taking one last look around the cave, I took a deep breath and then stepped outside into the rain, ready for another long day of treacherous treading.