Beauty in the Beast

Chapter 3

The next morning Loki woke up with heavy thoughts. The dreams he had had the night before didn’t help alter his mood. What could they possibly mean? He was not one for killing others in cold blood, or at all for that matter. He wasn’t a monster. Was he? After dwelling on the images of his vision and the nightmares, Loki just shook his head. He was being ridiculous. He wasn’t going to worry about last night’s vision. He was probably just tired. Sometimes his mind played games on him: it was just one of those moments. Besides, if he was a frost giant then Father would have surely told him. It wouldn’t be something that he just kept to himself. Loki took a deep breath and smiled slightly before getting changed into his armour. Today they would be training in the weapon arena. He needed to make sure his body was covered.                                                                                

He made his way down to the arena. Today he was sure that he would beat his brother’s record. It was a running competition between them both. Whenever someone received a jab or a hit in a five minute match, their opponent received points and so far Thor had the record by two points. Loki entered the arena and noticed his father in the stands. Odin exchanged glances with Loki and Loki nodded back to reassure him that he was okay. Odin gave him a small smile and focussed on the rest of the warriors. Meanwhile Loki scanned the rest of the arena. He noticed Thor at the other edge of the arena talking to some woman that Loki didn’t recognise. She wasn’t a warrior and yet she was wearing armour. Loki decided to walk towards Thor so he could get a closer look at the mystery contender. As he reached his brother, Thor noticed his arrival.

“Ah dear brother I see you have arrived ready to be beaten this time.” Loki did a short laugh and retaliated instantly

“No brother, I am simply here to see the look on your face when my record beats yours….again. Oh and I’m here to see you fall on your ass.” He said playfully. Thor laughed heartily

“Then this shall be a good fight. I’m looking forward to it.” Thor slapped his hand onto Loki’s shoulder before walking off to join his friends. Loki shook his head and laughed to himself. Looking up he noticed the mysterious woman now standing all by herself. Loki walked up to her and managed to catch her attention

“Hello. I didn’t realise that we had anyone new joining us in practice. Would you like me to introduce to the warriors? I can tell you the game rules but I must warn you that………wait…… my lady is that you?” Loki stopped in shock. Laila  giggled before composing herself and putting on an act

“Hello fellow warrior. My name is Laila and I will smash you into the ground!” She said in a deep, manly voice. Then, unable to hold her act any longer, she laughed again “Hello Master Loki, I was wondering when you would notice.” Loki realised that he was still staring at her

"Hmm. Yes. Sorry my lady I didn’t recognise you at all. That was awfully rude of me. I wasn’t expecting you to join us today.” Laila smiled playfully

“Yes well you did invite me here. Don’t you remember?” She pointed out. Loki replayed last night’s events in his head. He vaguely remembered talking about it with her, but she must have taken it the wrong way.

“Yes my lady, sorry, it’s just that the invite wasn’t actually meant for you to fight. I didn’t think –” Laila cut him off

“You didn’t think I would fight because I’m a woman. Is that it?” Loki blushed slightly

“I’m sorry my lady, please I did not mean to offend your femininity in anyway. That was completely foolish of me. We’ve never had a woman warrior before except for Lady Sif so I thought that you’d just be watching. Not that I thought you weren’t boring my lady….. oh dear….. ummm” Laila laughed at Loki’s inability to get out the theoretical hole he was digging.