❀ Beauty and the Beast ↠

↞17↠

For the first time ever, I appreciated Thor and his goons' help. Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogan were actually rather useful when anticipating a battle. I slacked behind the five, being the only one who was actively scanning my surroundings. As much as I wanted to minimise the time Freya was captive here, I didn't want some mindless creatures diving out on us and tearing us to shreds. What use to her would we be then? Before long, the others were out of sight. When I rounded the corner, they were gone. Growling, I turned and set off in my own direction. I wasn't going to get anywhere following those fools. The halls echoed so loudly that I cursed the damn fortress for giving away my position. Through my own intuition - or luck - I managed to locate the dungeon surprisingly easily. The word dungeon sounded horrible when thinking about Freya. I knew that she was a war hero who had most likely seen more horrors than me in her time but when I thought of her, all that came to mind was a beautiful, small woman with pale, delicate skin and flowing golden hair who seemed more suited to court than a battle field. I shook the thought of her from my head and set myself back onto the right track of finding Freya. After wandering the halls of the lower caverns of the fortress fro longer than I could comprehend, I noticed an orange glow coming from one of the rooms. I whipped out my daggers and pressed myself against the walls, slowly advancing on the door. I slowly peeked inside to see the room was illuminated by two torches pegged on opposing walls, perfectly framing Freya's body. She was strung from the wall by her bleeding wrists. Her knees were red and cut from kneeling on the stone floor for what seemed like hours. Her hair was soaked in blood and sweat. She had most definitely been tortured some. I rushed in, dropping to my knees, casting my daggers either side of me as I did and took her face in my hands. Freya stirred as she came to and muttered my name. "I'm here, I'm sorry for what I said, I'm so sorry," I begged for her forgiveness before standing and breaking the chains that held her. Freya dropped to the ground but I managed to catch her before she hit the floor. I cradled her to my chest and tucked her golden, matted hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry," I said again wrapping my arms around her and holding her as close as I could. The second that I saw her face, I regretted everything that I had done to her. Everything that I said. She was terrified! I had seen that look of fear on women before but to see it on her truly pained me. I examined her body to see just what had been done to her. There was many wounds on her body caused clearly by a sharp blade though they were not stab wounds they were more cuts and slices made for the purpose of slow and painful torture; she had lost a lot of blood. I took her arm in my hand lightly and rotated it to see the burns that had been inflicted on her. I bit my lip and held back the pain. To see her like this broke my heart. 

"Nerthus," Freya stammered as best she could before going limp once again. In that moment, Thor and the other four stumbled into the room at that very moment, their weapons caked in blood. Funny how their way always resulted in confrontation. I looked at them for a moment as they stared at us on the floor. I scowled, stood and picked Freya's weakened body as tenderly as I could. 

"Lets go," I told them without a single hint of emotion to my words. I felt their gaze following me as I walked past them but I refused to give any of them the satisfaction of knowing what was going through my mind even though they could probably all assume.  

There was no way that we could make it back to Asgard that day, so therefore, we decided to set up camp amongst some trees. They would do for shelter. When we reached this site, my arms were in agony from holding Freya for hours though I still refused to hand her to anyone else. She had awoken once as she recovered a little during the journey to the site however, after I had told her that she was safe, she fell back asleep in my arms. As the others set up tents, I sat with Freya still in my arms, cradling her and watching her as she slept. Once the shelters were up, the others cleared the way to lay Freya inside the best looking one. I lay her down on the ground, where Sif had left a blanket and pulled the cloth over her shivering body as carefully as I could, as not to wake her. She needed the rest. Once she was resting, I left the tent to soak a cloth in the nearby brook. I felt the other's eyes on me as I did so but they said nothing. When wetting the cloth, I got a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the water. I was covered in her blood also. The sight sickened me. I bit my lip trying not to let my emotions come out in that moment. After the cloth was wet enough, I made my way back into the tent where Freya was still sleeping soundly and knelt beside her. I dabbed her skin with the cloth and slowly wiped away the blood from every part of her body which was showing, I dared not undress her. She was already terrified of me. Just as I was cleaning her right arm, she opened her eyes. I froze as soon as I saw her. I looked her in the eye as I was leaning over rather menacingly with her arm in my hand but she didn't move. She didn't look afraid but she didn't look particularly happy either. "Loki," she uttered. I snapped from my frozen state and knelt back up straight next to her. "You saved me?" She asked. I nodded nervously. "Why?" She asked with little emotion to her words. 

"Freya," I swallowed all my fears and opened up to her. "I'm sorry," I told her, turning away from her. I couldn't look at her. "I was worried about what Thor said," She hadn't moved. "Because what he said was true. Women are afraid of me - but you know that," I turned back to look at her but she hadn't changed. "I'm a scoundrel; a terrible man. A man that no good woman should be saddled to," I admitted. I knew this to be true. I had a lot of rage to work out about my family and unfortunately, the more foolish women of Asgard faced the brunt of this rage. "I wanted to scare you away from me," She just stared at me silently. After a long moment of silence, I felt a weak pressure on my hand that held the cloth. I looked down to see that Freya had shifted her weak and frail hand over my own but when I looked back, she was fast asleep again. Not wanting to disturb her further, I swallowed a breath that I had held during the whole confrontation and left the tent as silently as I could.