Summary: …As she lay dying on the cold palace floor she knew. She had made the right choice…
By Laura G.
Loki X OC | Tom Hiddleston Loki | Adult Themes
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
A Loki Story – Chapter 2
Ara was inconsolable. Loki silent. He watched as Ara threw herself at Odin’s feet. Pleading, begging, and crying heavy tears. Everything had been taken from her, everyone she loved, please not the man she loves as well. But the All-Father would not listen. It would end now. Loki helped Ara to her feet. Gently hugging her to his lightly chilled form. Pressing soft kisses to her cheeks and one to her lips.
He felt his jaw move in tears he kept hidden from her, and especially the All-Father. He looked at his father a moment, before turning and leaving the small garden where the raven cage stood. The two majestic birds hopped in front of the weeping Ara, squawked angrily. Odin stepped back. “In time. You heart will heal.” He spoke before turning and leaving her alone.
But her heart didn’t heal. Months passed, years, decades, centuries. Odin would ask Freyja if she could still feel Ara’s broken heart, and Freija would nod. And would implore of Odin. “Let the lovers be together. Do not force these centuries of grief onto them.” But he would not. Instead he tried to dote on Ara. Keep her away from Loki.
He made her princess. Had her moved into the palace, given her the finest clothes. Even suggested a possible husband for her. Thor had been suggested, brave Fandral. But when she would glance across the table to Loki, Odin would stop the conversation dead in its tracks.
But what the watchful Odin did not know, the lovers had continued to meet in the greatest of secret. Even Heimdal who saw all, did not see. Or, perhaps the watchman had taken pity on the lovers and turned his gaze from them.
Every evening after nightfall the lovers would meet in the raven garden. Under the silent gaze of the stars and the two birds the lovers would lay together. They would call each other husband and wife. And one night Loki took his bride to bed. And in those hours they were together, life was perfect.
They had each other, and wanted for nothing. Loki finally understanding her book, as he looked down on Ara. Her warm smile and loving eyes looking only at him. He smiled, he couldn’t remember when he had been this happy. Leaning down he kissed her soft mouth and whispered, “Whatever happens. I am your husband. I will always be your husband.”
Ara would smile and kissed him back. “Whatever happens, I am your wife. I will always be your wife.” Their vows spoken to the night sky. It was all they needed. They slept quietly there. Until just before dawn, when Loki would transport them both to her room. Putting her in her bed, kissing her before disappearing through the secret panel in the burned out fireplace. Up his tower to his room.
How Odin found out no one knew. Some whispered that it was Thor. Jealous of the relationship of his younger brother with Princess Ara. Others said it was Loki himself. Others kept their tongue. As the whole of Asgard shook in Odin’s rage. Even down on Midgard, earthquakes shook.
Odin thundered and stormed, swearing both would be punished for this betrayal of the highest form. He now nearly wild with rage, now not even Freyja, Frigga or even Thor dared to intervene on behalf of the lovers. He cast Loki out to the woods, in a maze. Knowing it would even take clever Loki very long to emerge from.
He then set his sights on Ara. She sat kneeling on the floor. Her eyes cast down on the tiles. He seemed to calm me a bit. Walking toward her. “It would seem I need to keep a closer watch on you. It seems you cannot be left alone. Well, that will change.”
The entire hall held its breath as Odin spoke a dark incantation. Thick black smoked swirled around Ara, before it cleared. An audible gasp when through the crowd as Ara was no longer there, but instead a black raven sat on the floor.
It was larger than his other two. Ara spread her wings open, flapping and let out a screech, part human, part bird. Before she could take flight and fly to her love, Odin had grabbed her. Placing her in a cage outside under the balcony. “Now, this is the right place for you Ara. Near to your friends, but close enough for me to keep watch over you.”
He walked back into the hall, most people had departed. Apart from one. Frigga. Now it was a truth acknowledged by all who had met Odin, that there were not many things he feared. But as he looked in her eyes he felt a knot twisting in his stomach.
“How could you?! How could you have been so unbearably cruel?!” The Goddess thundered. Their argument lasting well into the night, before both departed. Meanwhile Ara sat in the bottom of her cage, her prison and wept in silence.
As Loki was trying to find his way out of the maze he felt the pain. Something had happened to her. Something had happened to his lovely one. His Ara. His wife. He let out a scream and dropped to his knees. Gripping the sand in his fingers and squeezing it tight.
Calling out to his son, the noble steed Sleipnir. The horse, famed for having eight legs, had been stolen from him by Odin. Whom had claimed him as his steed. But Loki and Sleipnir still had a connection. And his child heard Loki.
The stable masters looked up in shock, as the horse turned around and used his hind legs to kick the door of his stall in. They tried to stop him, but they knew that aside from Odin or Loki no one could stop him. Watching in shock as it reared up on its hind legs and then charged out and ran across the courtyard, out back and into the forest.
