Loki continued to spread his mischief across Ohio. He turned the railroads into red licorice, the buffalos into gymnasts, the trees into candy canes and the birds into oranges. The last one was thanks to Vahl Dragonborn. He then switched from night to day every few minutes so he could see his work. He saved Newark for last.
"Hmm, let's see," he murmured to himself as he hovered over the unsuspecting town. "What to do? What to do?"
He paused when he heard laughter. He glanced down and saw two humans having a picnic under a gazebo. He recognized them as Alyssa's older brother and the local school teacher. The man was wearing a bowtie and dinner jacket, while the woman was wearing a pretty pink dress. Loki perched himself on a cloud and watched.
"It was nice of you to plan a picnic, Andrew," said Martha.
"Yup," her date nodded.
The Frost Giant had to duck as she looked up at the sky. "Beautiful night, isn't it?"
Andrew Spence looked in her direction. "Yup."
Loki rolled his eyes. "Come on, boy! You can say more words than that!"
Suddenly, a smaller version of himself with devil horns and a pitchfork appeared on his shoulder.
"What are you waiting for? They're having a lovely date. Ruin it!"
He nodded and snapped his fingers. Below, Andrew Spence let out a loud burp. He blushed in embarrassment.
"Pardon."
She's going to dump him now, the Frost Giant thought, chuckling to himself.
But instead, she giggled. "Someone's had too much champagne."
Loki was confused, but tried something else. As Martha took a sip of her drink, he snapped his fingers, causing her to spit the champagne into Andrew's face. Maybe he will dump her now!
Martha smiled awkwardly. "Sorry. Looks like I've had too much as well."
They stared at each other and both laughed. Loki was beginning to get annoyed. He summoned up a storm of cotton candy clouds and made them rain chocolate milk on the couple.
"Strange," Martha said. "There wasn't a cloud in the sky a minute ago."
She yelped as a bolt of lightning almost struck her. Her clothes and hair were getting drenched in chocolate milk. Andrew Spence ripped his jacket off and threw it over her shoulders. The two ran toward the barn and huddled inside with the farm animals.
Martha began taking off the jacket, but Andrew stopped her with his hand and shook his head.
"Thank you, Andrew," she said with a smile. She then glanced at the storm outside. "Wow, what dumb luck, huh?"
"Yup."
They laughed and rubbed their noses together. Loki slammed his hand on his cloud.
"I don't get it!" he shouted. "I humiliated them, made it rain on their picnic and they're still happy?!"
"Sickening, isn't it?" his shoulder devil gagged.
He stared down at the couple as they settled in an embrace and looked into each other's eyes. He let out a longing sigh. "Yeah. Sickening."
"You don't sound so convinced."
"Why do you suppose nobody's looked at us that way?"
"We're too magnificent for such sap!"
"Hey, why am I even talking to you when there are humans to hear me gloat?"
He kicked his small self away and steered the cloud towards Columbus.
