~ Dynasty ~ A Loki love story.

Chapter 16

Lilly's pov:

I had been living at the palace for a week and love every moment of it; as soon as I had told Mother of Loki's offer, she excitedly accepted.

One particular morning, I awoke late and hurried to dress; after breakfast, I discided to take a walk outside and enjoy some of the palace's tranquil gardens. Once outside I shivered at the cool morning breeze, the hem of my light purple dress tickled my ankles as the wind blew, making me look down at it. I realized I had forgotten shoes, so I was glad the courtyards only had smooth stone paths and soft grass. I walked along for a few minutes, enjoying the flowers, greenery and bird songs.

Suddenly, I felt someone slip their arms around my waist from behind, "good morning," I stated with a smile, knowing exactly who had trapped me, "where have you been the past few days?" I asked leaning into them.

"Inbetween court meetings and comforting Mother sitting at Fa- Odin's bedside," Loki replied, turning me to face him.

I admired my prince - who was now my king, for a few seconds, he was wearing a green and black outfit, with no heavy armour or helmet. His blue eyes seemed so bright today,  "I've missed you," he sighed and slid his hands up my arms to my shoulders - I could have dropped that very minute, my legs felt weak as jelly at his touch. Loki traced a line from my temple along my jawline to my chin, "I love you, Lilly," he whispered.

I shivered and smiled at the same time; a few seconds later Loki connected his lips to mine, I returned the kiss and was disappointed when he cut it short.

"I need you to leave for a while," Loki stated, breaking me out of my daze.

"Leave?" I questioned, "what do you mean?"

"I can't explain it, but I need you and your Mother to stay away from the palace for a while," Loki instructed.

"But I just moved here," I protested, "can't you give me a reason?"

"Lilly," Loki replied, "please trust me. I need you to leave, only for a few days, please?"

I sighed, "when?"

"As soon as possible," Loki answered, "have the servants help you pack a few supplies, enough for a little while.

~~~

For the past five days, I've been living back in my childhood home - the small cottage near the woods; on the fifth day I discided to take a walk down to the small hidden cove in the forest that I had first learned to fight in, exactly one year and five months earlier.

Once there, I took off my shoes and waded through the cool water, upon hearing a birdlike flutter, I turned and looked up. Above, sat a pure white dove in a tree; it was hard to see it clearly because of the blinding sunlight that obstructed my view. I squinted and marvelled at the bird, it was almost unreal - so white, so pure. Then something floated in front of me - a pure white feather, similar to the one I collected in the woods when I first met Loki.

I caught the feather and stared at its beauty; then a strong breeze came and almost snatched my treasure away, I hugged it to my heart to keep it safe and felt a sudden burning feeling in my chest. I watched in shock as a white light appeared and the feather absorbed into me and disappeared. I was too shocked to scream or cry, I looked back up at the dove and that's when it happened.

The wind blew fiercer and the dove flew off from its perch and hovered unnaturally in front of me. The sunlight became so bright but for some reason, even though it burned my eyes, I couldn't look away from it. Suddenly the dove dissolved into a million feathers carried along by a white mist. I stared in awe as the feather in my hand disintegrated and joined the rest of the mist. I turned around slowly trying to take it all in as white feathers swirled and circled around me. Then I felt an indescribable feeling of power surge through me, and a bright light shone from my eyes; I watched in amazement at the mist moved around me and formed majestic white winds on my back.

Next, I was being lifted into the air by the mist, and I twirled around and laughed joyously as I flew in any direction I wanted; the feeling of the air blowing through my hair was magical and felt like complete freedom. Soon I found myself hovering a meter from the ground, then I suddenly dropped. 

"Great," I mumbled to myself as I realized I had fallen into the shallow river. I stood up and looked over at the shore and noticed some sort of clear resin. Curiosity drove me out of the water and up onto the bank. I bent down and picked it up, strangely, it was the same white feather of earlier, perfectly preserved in a smooth oval-shaped stone. I seriously placed it close to my heart and a faint glow started to grow - pulled it away in time. 'awesome!'  I thought too myself. I had found an amazing treasure, I now knew how to start up this, this - power, but the landing was going to need some work. Maybe I could put a small hole through the resin and create a necklace out of the magical pendant. 

Slipping it into my dress pocket, for the time being, I thought about walking back to my cottage - I was freezing, and my dripping wet dress clung to my body tightly, it would be more than difficult to navigate my way home through the forest like that. Besides, it would be dark in about half an hour, I didn't know what to do, I knew I needed to get back to my Mother, but I also needed to get warm, or I would get hypothermia. I finally settled on building a fire to dry off for an hour, then try to make my way back home - yes in the dark, but I didn't have a choice, I couldn't leave Mother for so long.

The fire didn't take me long to build, but I knew It would take a while for my soaked dress to dry. I thought back to five days ago, why did Loki want me to leave? I missed him. Gods I missed him so much. I hoped he wasn't having second thoughts about us - we were perfect for each other. I had to remind myself constantly that I was courting the prince of Asgard - who was temporarily the king and quite possibly could permanently be the king very soon.

The prince. What in Valhalla did I do to deserve such an amazing person? 

"I can't fall asleep," I thought as the sky started to darken, "but I'll just lay back for a while."

Listening to the bubbling river sloshing against the smooth stones and the gentle calls of the birds retiring to their nest for the night, I stretched out by the fire and closed my eyes.