Beauty in the Beast

Chapter 18

Chapter 18! Woo! It's a short one again but the next one makes up for it. Trust me. Anyway I'm not going to ramble like usual so hope you like it!

Lots of Loki love from me!

- Z xx

Loki watched as a war grew around him. He saw Thor land expertly into the frost giant palace grounds and begin to knock away any frost giants blocking his path, the Asgardian warriors closely following his lead. Looking to the other side of him he noticed Laila running towards him with grim determination. A feeling of dread filled Loki’s stomach. He began moving away from Laila as fast as he could. He didn’t know why; all he knew was that he couldn’t be near her, no matter how much he wanted to be. He heard the faint, familiar sound of Laila’s voice calling his name. His heart panged with guilt as he stopped to face her. She caught up with him quickly, panting from her exerted chase and immediately began to talk to him. Loki heard her words and all past worries escaped his mind. She was here and she was safe. Nothing would separate them again; nothing. He would make sure of that. Laila moved closer towards them until their bodies were touching. Loki smiled and Laila returned it before she moved even closer and kissed him passionately. Loki kissed her back, enjoying the moment. Suddenly, the sense of dread began to return. Loki pulled away from Laila’s lips as she fell backwards towards the floor. Loki caught her just in time. He knew that something was wrong but wasn’t sure what. He heard a distant yell come from behind him and whipped around to see his brother running towards him. Thor was shouting something about Laila; something bad. Loki heard the words ‘stab’ and’ why?’ before he turned back to Laila and quickly scanned across her body. It was then that he noticed the distinctive and consistently growing wound upon Laila’s left side. Tears began to tumble from Loki’s eyes. How could this have happened? Loki gently stroked Laila’s cheek before laying her down on the icy floor and stepping back to allow his brother to take a look at her. Thor examined Laila’s body before turning to Loki with accusing eyes. Loki looked at Thor in confusion. Surely Thor didn’t think that he had done it? Thor moved his gaze towards Loki’s left arm. Loki followed his brothers gaze and almost threw up and the sight that stared back at him. From behind him, a coarse laughter rattled out through the palace grounds. As Loki whipped around to see who it was, he felt an agonising pain shoot through his gut. Slowly Loki felt the world around him fade away as darkness began to surround him, taking the laughter with it.                                                         

Loki woke up screaming Laila’s name. His breath became short and rasping as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. With overflowing relief he realised that it was a dream; nothing more. But it had felt so real and so agonising. Loki looked up to the ceiling of his cell and thanked the gods that Laila was not here now. At least he could be sure that his dream would not come true. A blast of cold air swept through the prison. Loki shivered. Even though he had been at Jotunheim for several months now, he was still finding it difficult to adjust to the planet’s climate. Rubbing his hands for extra warmth, he walked up to the edge of his cell to see what had caused the cold draught. Within seconds he knew the answer and he didn’t like it. Quickly he scurried to the back of his cell, determined to get as far away from the frost giants as possible. However his attempts were futile as the frost giants strode up to him with devilish grins upon their faces. Whilst one of the giants dragged Loki from the ground, the other spoke to him

“The king has demanded your presence Asgardian. You will come quietly and without a struggle.” The frost giant moved closer to Loki “Won’t you?” he asked rhetorically, knowing there was no hope for the prince. Loki looked up from the ground into the red, glaring eyes of the monster in front of him and smiled mischievously

“You know, I’m starting to think that all this hatred you throw towards me is just so you can mask the fact that you are secretly intimidated by me.” He said, challenging the giant. The giant’s smile faded and was quickly replaced by a repulsing snarl. Anger quickly took over

“How dare you!” the frost giant bellowed, punching Loki hard and square in the face. Loki took the blow without a sound but quickly retaliated, determined to keep the frost giant as angry as possible

“Oh so you’re not intimidated by me then? Well how come you have to have someone holding me every time you need to tell me something. If it’s not to keep you safe then what is it? Moral support? Call yourself a frost giant.” Loki said, rolling his eyes for extra measure. It seemed to work. The giant was blinded by rage.

“Moral support?! Come here and I’ll show you who’s really the giant in this room!” The frost giant screamed before making eye contact with the other frost giant

“Release him.” He snarled. The other frost giant began to protest

“But, we have to take him to the king.” He began to protest. Loki chuckled to himself as this seemed to anger the frost giant even further

“I don’t care about what the damn king said! Release the prince or I’ll knock your head off too!” he threatened. The second frost giant growled at this remark

"You could try but I think we all know that I’m stronger than you!” he shouted, also angry by this point. At that moment, Loki felt the grip on his arms slack as the frost giants began to pick a fight with each other. Quickly and quietly he began to shuffle his way around the quarrelling giants towards the door of the cell, while at the same time, keep a sharp eye and ear on the frost giant’s actions. As he made his way to freedom, the frost giants continued to row “You know the prince is right. Why do you always need me to come down here and hold him while you tell him things? Maybe you are scared of him. You don’t deserve to call yourself a frost giant. What kind of frost giant would be afraid of a prisoner?” the second frost giant retaliated. The first frost giant roared

“If I’m not a true frost giant then how come I am the only one that will deal with the damn prisoners at all?! While all you lot tremble upstairs, shaking at the thought of coming down here, I’m already slaving away, teaching the prisoners a lesson. You need to have a second thought on who’s the real frost giant here; the one who trembles in the palace walls or the one who actually comes down here to do the dirty work.” He threw back. Loki, who had just managed to reach the outside of the cell, chuckled again

“My my, you two really do sound like a married couple don’t you? You know, I hope me and Laila never turn out like you two. It doesn’t look much fun at all.” He sneered. The frost giants, realising the reason they were arguing in the first place, began to run towards Loki. Loki smiled playfully before whispering a small spell “Hucera.” He whispered. A small smile of satisfaction spread across his face as he watched the door of the cell slam shut, trapping the frost giants inside. He then quickly secured the lock with some ice shooting from his hands before running for the door, leaving to the sound of outraged frost giants screaming with fury.      

So there you have it. It's short but I realised I haven't really included much mischief from the God of Mischief so I thought I'd do this. Sorry for the short  chapter! Hope you keep reading!

As always don't forget to read, comment, vote and hate!

- Z xx