❀ Beauty and the Beast ↠

❀11❀

As I rouse from a heavy slumber I was first aware of the coolness of the air and it's loamy fragrance - only shielded by my nightdress and Loki's cape. I'd forgotten about Loki! Had I fallen asleep? The ground was lumpy as I lay on a bed of earth and rocks. My clothes felt as damp as a flower in the dew of the early morning. I half wondered if I was still dreaming as I sat up to take in my surroundings. I could hear erratic breathing coming from a few feet away from me. I turned to see Loki laid beside me on the grass. He had fallen asleep too! But he wasn't sleeping soundly. His cheeks were wet and his body was bathed in a cold sweat. His clothes were twisted around his limbs, probably because he was thrashing in his sleep. I could hear his heart pounding against his chest. Loki trembled. But his most striking feature was his skin, he was blue! He was covered in the distinct markings that defined frost giants. It was true. "Loki!" I yelled his name and scrambled over to aid him however, the second my hand touched his skin it burned! It burned but more of a cold burn. I hissed from the pain and retracted my hand. He wasn't getting any better. The princes body writhed and contorted under me as if he was fighting the frost giant away and loosing. This wasn't good, there was only one more thing I could try. I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the burn. I raised my hand and brought it down onto his face. The slap was as loud as a clap and stung his face. It had been an open-handed smack and it had left a red welt behind. Just below his eye was a small cut where the impact had broken the skin. Loki's eyes snapped open revealing his crimson, blood red eyes as I yelled from the burn on my palm from the touch. I saw in the corner of my eye as I stared at my hand, clutching it against me as Loki's skin slowly turned back to the hue that I was so familiar with. I felt his eyes on me as he took in every single detail of his surroundings. This mustn't have been the first time that this happened as he seemed to understand rather quickly what was going on. "Oh god..." He muttered and scrambled over to take my shoulder in his hand, his normally tamed back hair gathered wildly around his face. "Let me see," I looked into his eyes that had returned to their normal shade of green. I extended my hand to him which he took tenderly. I found it quite touching that he hadn't yet addressed his own cut. He carefully dragged his finger across the burn and bit his lip, guilt clearly taking over him. "You need to warm up," He told me as he stood and began to collect fallen sticks from the edges of the clearing. He said nothing to me for the next five minutes as he started the fire. No magic, just the old fashioned way. It was a shock to me that he even knew how to do it. It's not really a skill that I would have placed with a pampered prince but he did it. The heat of the campfire struggled to penetrate the wintry air. I sat as close has I dared to feel the radiating warmth, holding out numbed hands for defrosting - literally. Sparks flew into the sub-zero air only to die mid-flight and fall unnoticed as a blackened charcoal speck as Loki continued to prod the fire. "You saw?" He asked. I told him that I had. "Yet you're still not afraid?" I told him that I wasn't. "Why?" He asked darkly as if he was implying that I should be afraid. I told him honestly why I wasn't. If he was going to hurt me, he would have done it already. It was then when the prince looked at me for the first time since he inspected my injury. "I have," He told me pointing a stick at my hand. That was true but he didn't mean to! He was having a nightmare and I made the choice to get involved. My injury was my own fault. He wasn't having any of it. Eventually, the prince extinguished the fire after checking my hand once more making sure that the injury had subsided. He left me beside my horse and mounted his own that looked even shinier in the light of the early dawn. I knew that nothing that I could say would make him feel any better so I remained silent. I could smell the guilt on him. However, he was strange. I couldn't read him like I could the other men on Asgard and honestly, I liked it. It was a blessing and a curse to be able to know exactly what your companion was thinking all the time but Loki was a blissful silence. We rode back in complete silence and I didn't earn much more than a slight glance behind from Loki as if he was reassuring himself that I was still there. The fact that I was in a nightdress wouldn't look very good when we were let through the gates. Once we reached the stable, Thor was already pacing inside yet his face curled when he saw us. 

"Brother!" He yelled as Loki dismounted his horse rolling his eyes at the confrontation. "How could you lead a young woman out into the night? It's dangerous, you know that!" He yelled as he shoved the mans shoulder to try and get his attention but Loki was having none of it. "It's alright for you to put yourself at danger but not others!" Thor continued but Loki had had enough. However, before he could even get a sound out I walked over with great pride to address Thor. 

"I am no damsel, your majesty," I mocked as I snatched Thor's cloak that he had removed from his hands to cover my indecent state. "Oh have you forgotten who I am?" Neither prince spoke a word. "And for your information he did not lead me anywhere, I left on my own and happened to come across Loki," Thor's stature drooped a little as he realised that he had falsely accused his brother. "Now," I began looking between both princes. "If you'll excuse me I wish to make myself decent," Before walking off out of the stable, shrouding myself in the large, red cloak. I could feel the princes eyes on me, I could sense what they were thinking - well Thor at least. He was shameful that he had spoken in such a way and had been mistaken in the end but, once again, Loki was a blur. All I knew is that his eyes were on me also.