Midgardian princess

Chapter 14

You wander around in the streets. As people walk by they smile at you kindly. You see children playing ball and a little boy sitting on the stairs, crying. You walk up to him and sit down. You see him holding his bleeding knees. You gently stroke over the wound with your hand and the blood disappears and all that is left is healthy skin. The boy almost chokes up in surprise of the sight and his face, wet with tears, turns to look at you. He hasn't stopped crying quite yet so you dry his face gently with your long sleeves.

"Princess..." he says in between his hiccups.

"You feel better now?" you ask and he nods. You smile and start to stand up, but you feel his tiny hands taking yours so you sit back down and put one arm around the boy and wait for him to calm down.

It doesn't take long for his red face to turn back to normal and his tears to stop forming.

"Thank you, princess," he says.

"You are welcome," you mess his hair.

"When will you be queen?" the little boy suddenly asks and it's your turn to choke up, "I can't wait for you to be queen! You will be a wonderful one! Will you be queen when Thor becomes king?"

You don't know what to say. You had left such thoughts into the past just as you had left Loki. You had accepted the fact that Loki won't come back and you will have no future with him, neither will you ever go back to Earth to fulfill your oath of protecting your people. You know you will have to remain just the claimless princess from Midgard for the rest of your days. You had accepted it all after you spent a whole year deep in your grief. Now you've been trying to help the people here in the best ways you could.

"I will never be queen," you finally say and the boy looks confused.

"Why? You are so nice and wonderful and beautiful. Everyone loves you."

"I cannot become queen because my king... died," you feel sharp pain in your heart, "But don't worry. Thor will find a wonderful bride for himself who will be the fairest of them all and kinder than I could ever dream of being."

The boy looks sad as he turns his gaze away.

"But I like you..." he whispers.

"And that's the biggest compliment anyone could give me," you assure him, "But I must go now, I hope to see you again."

You stroke his blonde hair and get up. You smile once more to the child and start to walk to the palace. As you get closer you start to have a strange feeling in your gut like something is wrong, but you can't tell what it could be or why you feel that way. Your steps become longer and you have to hold the silks of your dress so you wouldn't trip over them. Inside the castle nothing seems different. The guards stand silently at their posts as they always do, but you know exactly where to go.

You walk down the spiral steps deeper into the castle, the golden walls turn into stone and soon you can smell food. There is loud chatter as usually by the kitchens and you choose your hiding spot carefully. You hear the women talk loudly and over each other. This conversation doesn't have their usual happy undertone, this time you could hear fear and panic, a hint of anger. It is hard do separate the voices from one another and figure out what they are saying.

"This is a catastrophe!"

"What horrible news!"

"What will Odin do now? It is his son!"

"But the Bifrost has been destroyed!"

"How could this be?"

"Loki is alive!"

You gasp loudly, but nobody hears you. This cannot be. You feel your knees get weak, but you decide not to waste any time so you run back up the stairs you had come from. You pace down the wide hall and push open the heavy golden doors, too impatient to wait for the guards to do it for you. You see Odin sitting on his throne, talking to Frigga. Both of them turn to face you and you don't stop for a second.

"Is it true?" you ask as you walk with the upmost confidence towards them.

"Is what true?" Odin asks.

"Is. He. Alive." you emphasize every word, trying to keep yourself from shouting.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific," he says, calm as if nothing was wrong.

You walk up the stairs without asking for permission or showing the slightest bit of respect, you were too over it all. Mad from the possibility of your lover being alive. You stand right in front of the throne and tower over him as he's sitting.

"Is Loki alive?" you demand with a stone cold expression.

"Yes," says Frigga and you turn to face her.

"When were you going to tell me?" you ask.

"We weren't," Odin answers and stands up, now he is towering threateningly over you so you walk down a couple steps backwards careful not to fall, "Loki is on Midgard, committing crimes against the Nine Realms. Thor has been sent to collect him. Upon their return Loki will be sent to prison to spend the rest of his days there."

"We didn't want to cause you any more pain," Frigga adds.

You take a couple more steps back and now you stand on the same level as Frigga. You don't feel joy knowing Loki is alive, but you are afraid of what's to come.

"You just can't help yourselves, can you?" you look at Frigga and Odin, "How have you lived for thousands of years and still can't look truth in the eyes. All you do is lie and hide."

"That is enough," Odin thunders.

"Is it? I don't serve you! I swore in front of the Nine Realms to only ever serve and obey my husband and to forsake all others! You heard it and you know it's true!" you hiss.

"Get out," Odin says, but you can see him holding himself back.

"That's fine, I don't need anything else from you," you turn around and walk down the stairs, you are half way across the room when you stop and add, "But you should have told me. You should have sent me. I don't even know how you managed to send Thor after him with the bridge being destroyed, but Thor will only make things worse. I could have convinced him to come willingly and he is amongst my people. Anything that happens now is on your conscious."

You don't hear anything from the king and queen as you walk out of the throne room. You only have one thing in mind and there is only one person who could help you.