All The Little Pieces

The Woman In The Spring

Loki turned the page with his left hand while lazily twirling the embossed brass ring on the bookmark with his right. No one knew he was here and the library was deserted. In truth, the library was almost always deserted, which was fine with him. This was his sanctuary, and he would rather not share it with anyone. There was a quiet, unexplainable enjoyment to be gained from simply holding a book penned centuries ago and savoring the way the words played together on the page.

He flipped the next page and smoothed his hand across the thick parchment, then slipped the bookmark against the crease. Loki didn't need the bookmark; he always remembered where he had stopped, but it was something for him to play with while he read.

He leaned back and stretched his long legs out in front of him. It was quiet and cool just inside the open library windows. The bright sun on the marble balcony ended abruptly in the shadow of the towering shelves. Standing up, he stretched his arms skyward and turned to look out at the garden blooming in the rays of the mid-afternoon sun.

Movement in the hot spring pool below caught his eye. Loki squinted into the sun to see who was down there. He could see reddish brown hair floating on the surface, but the light reflecting off the water obscured anything else. Volstagg, maybe, but what was the buffoon doing in the spring? It was supposed to be for healing injuries. He noticed a small pile of clothing on one of the benches, probably a towel or robe.

Loki's lips quirked with amusement. With a twitch of his fingers, the clothes vanished, still there, but hidden from the eye. Let the oaf blunder around barely dressed, trying to find his things.

He turned and sank back into the chair, swinging his legs over the arm lazily. He lifted his book to resume reading while he waited to for his prank to be realized. A few minutes later, soft splashing drew his attention back to the spring. Loki rose and peered expectantly out the window.

To his surprise, the figure standing by the spring was definitely not the barrel shaped form of Volstagg. It appeared to be a woman, hair dripping freely down the back of her short tunic as she stood facing away from him.

Loki stepped forward, staying out of sight inside the shadow of the library. He did not recognize her from the back. The woman turned, and Loki's eyebrows rose in appreciation. She possessed none of the waifish thinness that was popular among many elves and Midgardian women, nor did she have the solid, muscular body of an Asgardian warrior woman. Her legs were shapely, leading up to curving hips. She reached behind her head, wringing the water from her hair and revealing round breasts that pressed against the thin, wet fabric.

Loki smirked as he watched her look around in confusion, searching for her missing clothes. She bent to check under the bench, then at the base of a flowering shrub. A quick movement of his fingers, and the clothes reappeared on the stone seat. She turned back to see them, exactly as she had left them.

The woman glanced back and forth in bewilderment before snatching them up. She rubbed her arms and legs quickly with the towel before throwing the robe over her shoulders and tugging it tightly around her, as though to keep it from any more disappearances. Her hand stayed clenched at the neck, holding the fabric close to her chest.

There was nothing graceful or sensual in her frantic dressing; in fact, it was more comical than anything, but Loki still found himself staring as she covered her wet tunic. He shook his head to clear it. One would think he had never seen a woman's body, let alone merely the shape of her body in wet clothes. The curve of her hips and breasts flashed into his mind again, and he exhaled slowly.

He watched her walk across the large smooth flagstones toward the palace as she left the garden. She moved so smoothly—and then without warning, tripped over her own bare feet. Her arms flailed through the air, the towel flew to one side into the dirt of a flower bed, and her long hair wrapped around her face. She gained her balance, hopped on one foot for a minute, and pulled a wet strand of hair out of her mouth. She grimaced and looked around wildly to make sure no one had seen her.

Satisfied that no one had, she straightened, lifted her head primly as though nothing had happened, and ascended the stairs leading in from the gardens, moving out of Loki's line of sight.

Loki leaned against the library wall and chortled with laughter. "Ah, that was truly excellent," he murmured to himself, then retrieved his book and left the library.