The Serpent and the Dove: a Loki Fan Fiction

Chapter 16

No purpose. No purpose. There was nothing to do anymore and she had no purpose. She had searched for things to fill her days, any task or project to work on, but no one needed her. How could there be an entire kingdom without a single need?

Jalwa blinked at her reflection in the shimmering ripples below her feet. In the far distance, where the crystal waters fell over the edge of the world, she saw no boats or even birds. Was there anything else out there? She looked around her. No one was there. Slowly, carefully, she lowered herself off the end of the dock she was sitting on and into the water. It was cool but didn't have a frigid bite like she expected. She let go of the dock and the water swallowed her up. Maybe this would help settle her mind.

What she hadn't considered was how hard it would be to swim with her flowing, billowy garments. True, it wasn't her steel armor, pants, and tunic that she normally wore, but it felt incredibly heavy nonetheless. She struggled to claw her way to the surface just long enough to heave in a gulp of air and sink down again.

As the waves closed over her head again, she watched in tranquility the bubbles floating from her hair and clothes to the surface. Despite the mild sting starting in her lungs, it was an almost peaceful experience. It certainly made her feelings of purposelessness seem far away. Of course, it might kill her to stay down there forever and enjoy the view, however, it didn't quite sound like a bad idea. Her lungs were burning now and the pressure on her eyes and ears as she continued down, down, down toward the bottom made them feel like they were going to burst. Maybe she should have gone to the surface to breathe, but somehow, the idea of fighting just to get back to where all of her problems were didn't seem worth it. Maybe this was fine.

Maybe...

A shadow came over her and she was suddenly dragged to the surface. She uttered a shrill gasp and before she could react, someone had pulled her to shore. Jalwa laid on the sandy beach, panting until her lungs had stopped aching. She opened her hazel eyes and there, beside her, sat a shivering, panting Loki, dressed in his trousers and a white undershirt. 

"You saved me..." she breathed softly.

He smiled with a husky, ragged breath.

Galaxy launched onto him with a savage growl, her curved, white teeth bared. "I didn't ask you to save me!" she spat.

Loki pressed his hands against her face. "Well, apologies I couldn't decipher your flailing and drowning as 'I'm fine! Carry on about your day!'" he retorted.

She stepped off him and let him up with an irked snort. "Whatever... it's fine."

"Fine... wait, why were you trying to drown yourself?"

"I wasn't trying," she said. "Just a happy accident..."

Loki grimaced at the gritty feeling of sand in his long, black hair. "Happy accident?" he asked. " What do you mean 'happy accident'? What's gotten into you, Jal..?"

"Jal!"

Jalwa blinked, and the scene of the dock faded away to reveal the training arena, and she came back to reality just in time to catch a sword being thrown at her. She gasped and looked to who had thrown it.

"You awake over there?" asked Sif.

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I'm awake."

Sif let her sword hang by her side as she paced slowly. "Then come here and spar with me; I'm challenging you."

Jalwa swung her sword in a circle, feeling the weight and shape of the blade. Unsurprisingly, it was a very good weapon, though a tad longer than she was used to. She let it rest by her side, the tip of the blade barely hovering above the ground as she walked. "Take it easy on me, it's been a while since I handled a sword."

"As if," Sif replied, smiling as she raised her weapon. With a deft swing, the sword's razor-sharp edge whisked by Jal's face, causing her to flinch. "I know Loki isn't much of a challenge for you, but at least pretend as though he gave you a little practice on Earth."

"I wasn't using a sword!" Jalwa carefully walked, crossing her feet one over the other, keeping on her toes in a ginger gait. She made an advance and slashed at Sif's side only to be deflected by a quick movement. She spun with the movement,  barely dodging a thrust be her opponent. With a downward movement, their blades met.

Sif shoved Jalwa backward and rained down more blows over her head, Jalwa just able to keep up and deflect each attack. She drew her sword back for another strike, then suddenly changed course and slashed at her opponent's feet.

STAMP!

Her gray eyes rounded when Jalwa trapped the sword against the sandy floor with her foot and smiled a crooked smile. Sif released the sword and scrambled back as Jal's blade came across her armor, the sharp screeching of metal echoing in the arena.

With one more swing, Jalwa was crouching over Sif, the blade against her throat. "Huh, would you look at that," she taunted. "Guess I'm not so out of practice after all."

Sif chuckled and shoved the other warrior off her. "Perhaps not." She rubbed her face, smearing dust across her cheek. "Hand me back my sword, let's go again."

"Can't take a loss, Sif?" Jalwa laughed maniacally as Sif threw a handful of sand at her.

"Just give me my weapon and stop yapping, hound," she jeered back. "You'd think being a failed Valkyrie, you'd be easier to fight."

Jalwa tossed the sword back to Sif and swung her own sword back and forth casually by her feet. "It's not like I was failed because I wasn't good at what I did."

Sif was standing still watching Jalwa walk. "Why did they fail you, again?"

"The general was mad that I beat everyone at a training exercise without a pegasus." 

"Right..."

"It's true!" she continued. "Who was general at the time... Brunhilde? Lord, she was such a hard-ass... But I had only been there a handful of days and they did this training exercise where we had to race each other to this gold ring that was displayed on top of the wall surrounding their training area."

Sif shrugged. "That doesn't sound too bad, but what's the point?"

Jalwa grinned uncomfortably, rubbing the back of her neck. "Well, the Valkyrie aren't known for being gentle in their exercises. Some of the other warriors came out of that exercise with sprains and broken bones because they batter each other to get to the ring.

"Of course, my first day actually practicing with them, my stupid horse... pegasus... glorified glob of glue, refused to do anything I wanted it to, so when it threw me off toward the beginning of the race, I decided, 'screw it, I'll go get that ring without my pegasus!' I ran until I found some higher ground, got close to the wall, ran up it, grabbed the ring, and came back with it."

"Wait, now," Sif laughed. "You ran up a wall?"

"Yeah! It's not hard; you just need enough forward momentum to get up there."

Sif rocked back and forth on her feet, her eyes locked on Jalwa's. "But I saw that wall- it's like these ones in here- they're almost ten meters high."

Jalwa shrugged. "I didn't say it didn't hurt when I landed... And I didn't run thirty feet... Uh, ten meters straight up. I only ran, probably, half that? Either way, Brunhilde was livid that I did the whole thing without a pegasus and without getting tagged by any other Valkyrie, so she failed me on the spot and sent me back to Odin."

"I still can't believe Odin didn't make her keep you."

"I think, secretly, he was impressed and wanted me for his own use. That's how I ended up training Thor and Loki, remember?"

"Yes, I do." Sif advanced and swept Jalwa's feet out from under her with a swipe, standing over her with the sword's point aimed at her face. "Helped me learn a few things, too, remember?"

Jalwa used the tip of her own sword to turn Sif's blade away. "Nah, I only remember you kicking my ass a couple times before I learned how to be light on my feet, and to stay the Hel out of your way when you were mad with a sword in hand," she chuckled.